Training Camp Or Not
by Animesque
Summary: What do you get when you mix the eclectic Hyoutei princes with the downright strange Rikkai boys? That’s right: total crack. Hyoutei has invited Rikkai over to one of Atobe’s giant mansions to hold a week long training camp. The insanity begins...
1. The Beginning

**Training Camp… Or Not**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the Prince of Tennis cast and only about a quarter of this storyline for the first few chapters. XD I wish I did though...

**Summary: **What do you get when you mix the eclectic Hyoutei princes with the downright strange Rikkai boys? That's right: total crack. Hyoutei Gakuen has invited Rikkai Fuzoku over to one of Atobe's giant mansions to hold a week long training camp. Just imagine two buchous who really didn't need to know so much about their respective teams, an aspirin dependant fukubuchou and a strangely happy Jackal. Add to that mix some frogs, two boys who won't admit their feelings and the Trickster, not mentioning a smirking tensai and a pouting little demon. The insanity is just about to start…

**Warnings: **Crack, OOC and shounen ai.

**A/N:** Half/Most of the credit of this story goes to darling **Sandy**(Sandileina) since this is the /actual/ RP we did (Sandy wrote Rikkai's part whilst I tried my hand at Hyoutei.) Honestly...! I did some writing... -innocent look-

I hope you enjoy!

For**Sandy** (Since you wrote it XD)

* * *

**Chapter One: The Beginning **

"No."

"But..."

"No."

"But...!"

"No."

"But /Haru/...!"

"No!!"

Ah, another day in the life of Niou Masaharu. Wonderful.

It was just past eleven am, and the mini-bus containing the Rikkai Daigaku tennis team had just arrived outside of…

"Well, it /says/ cottage," said Kirihara Akaya dubiously, over the sounds of Niou and Marui bickering again. "But if you ask me, it's a bloody mansion."

"Language!" snapped Sanada, cuffing Akaya neatly over the head.

"Watch your tongue. You're representing Rikkaidai and I will /not/ tolerate you letting our standards down." So saying, the imposing vice-captain started to head down the narrow gangway out of the mini-bus, Akaya following sulkily behind.

Niou and Marui started to make their way out too, still arguing loudly. "If you'd just let me…!" started Marui.

"No!! Stop asking me, piyo!" growled the Trickster, glaring crossly at his teammate.

"What are you two arguing about?" The voice came from the very back of the bus, where Yagyuu Hiroshi was waiting patiently for the others to get out so that he could follow.

Marui immediately spun to face Yagyuu, sensing a potential ally.

"Haru won't let me swap with him!" he whined. He thrust a crumpled piece of paper into Yagyuu's face. "See? See? See? I'm paired up with Akutagawa! I'll be mush by the end of the day!"

"Why the hell would I swap with you?" Niou asked crossly. "Name /one/ altruistic thing I've ever done. Go ask Jackal or 'Mura if they'll swap."

Marui shook his head vigorously. "Jackal's paired up with that weird Mukahi guy, and 'Mura's got Atobe. You're the only one who's got someone relatively normal," he pleaded, trying his best to produce the puppy-eyes that always worked on Jackal, but rarely worked on anyone else. "Please, Haru? I'll make it up to you, I promise!"

"No. You already owe me three favours," said Niou firmly.

"But..."

"No."

"But...!"

"No."

"But /Haru/...!"

"No!!"

The pair continued to argue for the entire duration of the short walk, ignored by the rest of their teammates. It was such a common occurrence that they would be more surprised if the two weren't having some sort of little verbal spar.

"Lets see…" Yukimura said, scanning a copy of the paper Marui had.

"We're supposed to meet up with Hyoutei first, and then later in the day we'll find out which rooms we've been given."

"Speaking of Hyoutei," Yanagi Renji said, nodding towards the small group standing by the front doors, "isn't that them?"

* * *

Gakuto sat bored on the sofa in the first living room. It was located on the first floor, closest to the hallway of Atobe's 'cottage'. 

"Cottage…" he sniffed disdainfully. Gakuto, as well as the rest of the team, were well used to the splendor (and purpleness) of the usual Atobe but still...

"It's alright Gakuto… There are no frogs here…" Oshitari's drawl lifted the gloom. At least for his short, red haired double's partner.

Hiyoshi barely looked up, since he was so intent on his book.

Shishido was too busy pretending to be interested in the scenery the window offered, but was in reality trying to use the reflection to watch his double's partner, Ohtori Choutarou.

Choutarou was trying to stare at his 'Shishido-senpai' without being obvious about it and failing miserably. At least to everyone but Shishido, who was oblivious.

Jirou, Kabaji and Atobe himself were no where to be seen.

Atobe would be preparing to dazzle the impending arrivals from Rikkai. Whether the dazzling would be done with his personality or his purpleness was still a point of worry. At least for Gakuto.

"Damned Atobe… He'll make our whole team look like pansies if he turns up in what he bought yesterday."

A shudder and a whimper accompanied the visual memory.

Oshitari walked into the room fully and slung a casual arm over his 'partner' knowing perfectly what the other was thinking about. "There, there. I'm sure Atobe won't do anything like that…"

At that point, Jirou bounced his way into the room. "OMG!!!!!!!!!!"

Everyone looked up because no matter what was happening, Jirou was too cute to ignore.

"What?" The entire team who were present asked at the same time.

Jirou's eyes opened to their widest extent and he bounced, literally, around the room. "I'm getting to room with MARUI BUNTA!!!!!!! He's like the most totally awesome, cool, wonderful person in the world! I'm so lucky that Atobe decided to let me room with him!"

At that point, Hiyoshi dropped his book and spoke, "That reminds me. Why on earth do we have to room with someone from Rikkai? There are more than enough rooms available to have one person to a room."

Everyone stared at the 2nd year for a brief moment. No one had ever heard him utter more words in one sitting. Ever.

The silent staring was interrupted by the sound of choking. It appeared to be coming from Shishido.

"…WHAT!? How come no one told me we were rooming with the Rikkai team??!" He demanded as Choutarou patted his back and asked anxiously after his well being.

Getting slightly distracted by the closeness of his doubles partner (and secret crush), Shishido fell silent for a brief moment, allowing himself to be warmed by Choutarou's gaze.

This got interrupted by the entrance of their majestic buchou, Atobe Keigo.

"Ore-sama does not allow himself to be questioned by commoners." He smirkingly announced to the room in general. To their general relief, he was in the Hyotei uniform like the rest of them. No purple, no lace.

Kabaji, obviously, followed the grey haired captain like a faithful servant and nodded in agreement to Atobe's statement.

The diva continued on, "However, since it's you, Shishido, ore-sama will make an exception and tell you once more since it was obvious that you had your mind on other things the last time."

Atobe trailed his eyes from the blue capped boy to his silver haired doubles partner in an obvious message.

Shishido blushed furiously, much to the amusement of everyone else apart from him and Choutarou, and scowled.

Choutarou looked at his senpai in concern, "Are you alright Shishido-senpai? You look a bit red. Is the heat getting to you? Maybe you should go out for a walk to cool down."

Behind his back, Gakuto silently mimicked his attentions to an amused Oshitari and a close-to-smirking Hiyoshi.

Atobe interrupted what looked like a promising start to a new cat fight between the acrobatics specialist and Hyoutei's resident drama queen by cutting between them.

"Now, listen up, ore-sama will not repeat this a third time."

Silence fell in the room. Atobe dropped the royal 'we'. It usually wasn't applicable around his teammates. He used it only when he wanted to make a point or when he was seriously annoyed with them.

"I know perfectly well that there are more than enough rooms available to go around. But I don't want this to just be a training camp; I want you to learn how the other players tick. Find out what drives them to become National Champions two years and counting. Learn from them. That is why I assigned you each a roommate. Kabaji?"

The tall, hulking 2nd year pulled a list out from his pocket and handed it reverentially to Atobe, who in turn held it out for his team's inspection.

The Hyotei team crept up and examined it carefully.

_Atobe – Yukimura_

_Hiyoshi – Sanada_

_Oshitari – Kirihara_

_Mukahi – Jackal  
_

_Shishido – Yagyuu_

_Ohtori – Niou_

_Akutagawa – Marui_

_Kabaji – Yanagi_

As the team fully understood the roomings for the first time, chaos broke out.

"Who the hell is Jackal?!" Gakuto shrieked.

Choutarou blinked and scratched his head, "Umm… I'm rooming with Niou-san?"

Oshitari looked at Atobe thoughtfully, "Why Kirihara? Really, Atobe, Yanagi would have been more interesting."

"I have my reasons," was the short reply. He opened his mouth to continue. It was then that Hiyoshi finally cracked it after a full minute of silently opening and closing his mouth.

"SANADA? ARE YOU INSANE? I'M GOING TO BE ROOMING WITH A BRICK?!"

Everyone else fell silent and stared at him for the second time that morning. They had never heard Hiyoshi lose it so bad or so loud.

Oshitari was the first to crack a smirk, "Well… At least you can communicate in 'brickenese' to each other. I'm sure you'll get along just fine."

Shishido tried to muffle his laughter but to no avail. "Haha! So true, Hiyoshi. You can't seriously say that you have much more personality than Sanada."

"Shishido-senpai!" Choutarou murmured with a shocked look.

"Enough!" Atobe clicked his fingers and the whole room fell to silence once more.

"Our guests are here." He turned. "Kabaji, the door."

"Usu."

As Kabaji went to get the door, the remainder of the regulars trooped out behind Atobe and spread themselves out in the entrance hallway in different impressive poses.

They were an imposing sight to anyone who beheld them.

Unless, of course, the anyone happened to be the Rikkai tennis team. In that case, they just looked plain silly.

* * *

So? How was it? Love it? Hate it? REVIEW! Thanks XD 


	2. Meetings

**Training Camp… Or Not**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the Prince of Tennis cast and only about a quarter of this storyline for the first few chapters. XD I wish I did though...

**Chapter summary: **Are poses supposed to be funny? Perhaps not… And what has gotten Yukimura so amused? Meanwhile, the Trickster thinks up evil plans and Shishido isn't happy. Completely no intelligence involved…

**Warnings: **Crack, OOC and shounen ai.

**A/N: **I know my chapter titles are so very clichéd and extraordinarily boring. But I'm hopeless at them XD Any suggestions?

**To everyone who reviewed last chapter:** A huge THANKS!! They totally made my day and made me grin like a maniac for the rest of the night. This chapter is up earlier than planned, just for you all

As a side note, in case anyone gets confused //…// denotes thoughts.

For **Sandy **(Since you wrote half of this chapter too! XD).

* * *

**Chapter Two: Meetings**

Yukimura smiled cordially at their hosts, stopping a meter or so in front of Atobe and giving a polite bow in greeting. "Thank you for your hospitality," he said formally.

Atobe gave a returning smirk and waved his hand majestically. "It was nothing. We are honored to have you here of course…" He cast a lazy look back at his artistically arranged team.

Sanada nodded politely, and gave his team behind him a short, warning look, obviously telling them to mind their manners. Well, telling Niou and Akaya, anyway. The others were all likely to behave themselves, at least for the time being. He'd have to keep an eye on Marui later, though. He doubted Akutagawa would stop him if he decided to get up to mischief.

Niou, for his part, was looking a little bored as he eyed the Hyoutei Regulars, despite the ever so intriguing poses.

His eyes picked out Kabaji first, and a cynical smirk made its way onto his face. He was pretty sure he knew why Atobe had paired up Yanagi with Kabaji. Atobe was far from stupid. He would be using this opportunity to get as much information on Rikkai as he could, no doubt, and of course Rikkai would be doing likewise.

However, Yanagi was their principal data collector, and paired with anyone else he would be able to work out the group dynamics and pretty much everything that made them tick in the several days they had here. But with Kabaji... he wouldn't be able to find out a thing. Niou admired the Hyoutei buchou for his well-thought out plan.

* * *

Gakuto wilted a little as his impressive pose, or so he thought, didn't seem impressive enough to keep the other team's interest. 

In fact, he could have sworn he heard someone whisper. "Hey Jackal, why do you think that little red haired guy is doing upside down? He looks really strange. Do you think I should ask?"

Gakuto blocked out any reply that could have been and ignored Oshitari's I-told-you-so smirk. The red haired acrobat thought that Oshitari was the one who looked strange; just leaning against the wall like he had nothing better to do.

Hiyoshi spent his time glaring at Sanada and ignored the sniggers at his 'gekokujou' pose. He'd show Oshitari brickenese. //I so have much more attitude than him. Besides, it's clear that I'm so much better looking…//

Choutarou and Shishido were in their own little world, staring at each other covertly without trying to appear obvious about it. They failed.

Gakuto heard another voice speak out loudly, "Why on earth are those two staring into each others' eyes? It's seriously scary. I mean, they should get a room. Right now."

This time he snickered and put a hand over his mouth to keep from laughing out loud as Shishido and Choutarou jumped away from each other with a blush as if they had been caught doing something they shouldn't have.

Atobe ignored all going ons behind his back and continued to smirk at Yukimura. "I say, we have a lot in common don't we?"

To the surprise of everyone on the Rikkai team, including Renji, Yukimura burst out laughing. It was short-lived, but the occurrence of Yukimura genuinely laughing was so rare and sought after that Sanada literally glared at Atobe. Usually it was only him or occasionally Akaya that could make Yukimura laugh.

How dare Atobe steal that from them? He hadn't even said anything particularly funny.

"Maa, ne," the Rikkai buchou smiled, chuckling a little still. "Maybe we should trade sometime."

"No way," Akaya was heard muttering. He received a clout on the back of the head by Sanada, and was subdued.

When Yukimura had stopped laughing, Niou's attention had been drawn back to the tall, silver-haired second year and the surly-looking third year with the somewhat scruffy cap, who were both avoiding each other's gaze.

Shishido and Ohtori... A glint entered Niou's eye.

He was rooming with Ohtori-kun, wasn't he? Hmm. Obviously, the two hadn't confessed their feelings for each other. It might be fun to see if he could seduce Ohtori in the week they had. He might end up hurting the boy, but Niou wasn't particularly bothered by that. He was the Trickster, after all, and it wasn't /his/ fault he'd ended up with such an... interesting nature.

This ought to be fun.

Not knowing about Niou's sinisterly plotting mind; or if he did, ignoring the evilness, Yukimura asked, "May we be shown to our rooms, please?"

Atobe nodded to Kabaji who in turn signaled to the footmen and maids.

They all converged onto the hallway, each going to a pre-assigned Rikkai regular. The footmen picked up the luggage.

"They will show you to your assigned rooms. You are welcome to unpack and refresh yourselves. You'll meet your roommates after you're settled and we all hope you get along. Lunch will be served in fifteen minutes and training will begin directly after lunch. The household bell will be rung 10 minutes before any meal is served." Atobe told the assembled group.

The Hyoutei regulars all knew the drill pretty well, so they paid it little or no attention at all.

The Rikkai regulars looked startled that there was such formality for meals but recovered themselves by the time Yukimura and Sanada gave their own instructions to the group.

The Hyoutei boys waited until the other team were safely up the stairs before turning to their buchou.

"We'll give them a couple of minutes to settle before you'll go to these assigned rooms…"

More maids appeared seemingly out of no where and handed each member of the team a sheet of paper with their name, roommate's name and room number.

Almost everyone looked resigned, or in Jirou's case, ecstatic, to receive their room assignments.

As they all left to pack up their scattered belongings and move into their respective rooms, Shishido cornered Atobe, alone.

"Do you have any idea of what you're doing?" He hissed between clenched teeth.

Atobe looked bored, "Of course. Just because ore-sama decided not to let you and your lovely Choutarou room together…"

The blue capped boy cut him off, "That's not the point. Why on earth did it have to be Niou? He's not known as the Trickster for nothing…"

An elegant eyebrow rose. "Oh. You're jealous…" Atobe smirked.

"You know Shishido, maybe this is the best way to test you and Choutarou. Look at this as a test of your /friendship/."

He laughed and it rang across the hall. Climbing the stairs, the buchou of Hyoutei looked back once more on his longtime friend.

"Don't be too long sulking. I'm sure Yagyuu is just dying to meet you."

Shishido seethed as Atobe disappeared up the steps. No matter what anyone said, he and Choutarou were just friends.

Nothing more.

Nothing less.

But if anyone wanted to come between that friendship, just let them try.

And god help them if they did.

* * *

How is it? How is it? Sorry if it isn't as funny as it promised to be. I promise that I'll try harder. Review? Please? You'll totally make my day XD 


	3. Roomies once, Roomies for Life

**Training Camp… Or Not**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the Prince of Tennis cast and only about a quarter of this storyline for the first few chapters. XD I wish I did though...

**Chapter summary: **First formal meetings between roommates; including a sulky Kirihara and a very amused Oshitari as well as a not very pleased Hiyoshi and Gakuto. Renji is extremely frustrated and Shishido is sulking worse than Akaya. Why is Jirou the only happy one of the lot?

**Warnings: **Crack, OOC and shounen ai.

**A/N: **Woot! I was so surprised that people actually continued to review . Wow… I'm motivated to write more now. Thank you all so much!! I'll probably be updating this piece twice a week at the start, till about chapter 10 or so. After that, I'm afraid it's going to be once a week... Sorry, in advance. And onto the story XD...

For **Sandy**.

* * *

**Chapter Three: Roomies Once, Roomies For Life**

Choutarou made his way up to his assigned room slowly, taking his time to think things over. He had found a maid packing up his things just before and was informed that his things would be brought up to his new room soon.

Sure, he didn't mind rooming with other people but he was still slightly apprehensive at being put into the same room as Niou Masaharu. Innocent as he was, even Choutarou had heard rumors about the Trickster.

He was sure that Shishido-san…

//Stop. What am I thinking? I should… //

With some measure of relief, Choutarou found himself standing before his assigned room and left his disturbing thoughts behind him.

Walking in, since the door was ajar, the tall junior stopped uncertainly as he noticed his roommate lying prone on one bed with two bags at the foot.

The other rolled over closer and offered a hand, still on the bed, "Niou Masaharu. You're Ohtori, yes? D'you mind if I call you Choutarou?"

Choutarou shook his head, "Uh. That's fine, Niou-san."

Subconsciously he noted that the red covers on Niou's bed went quite horribly with the silver hair. Maybe he should bring it up later.

Niou was more than aware of the appallingly colored duvet and its horrendous clash with his hair, but he didn't mind. The discord would just made him look a little more threatening when he needed to, eventually. But right now he was on his best behavior, trying to get on Choutarou's good side.

He still had to continuously remind himself to smile rather than smirk.

Niou ended up with a kind of genial half smile that twitched suspiciously every now and again, but it was an effort.

* * *

Meanwhile… 

Gakuto fumed as he stomped his way to his room. Oshitari hadn't been very sympathetic about his plight.

//Damn Yuushi. I'll get him back for this. Wait till he comes begging… //

His thoughts trailed off as he reached his room and found his roommate…

Uh… What was his name again?

Taking another irritated glance at the scrunched up sheet he held, Gakuto announced with malicious pleasure, "I don't think we're going to get along, Jacket."

Jackal looked up, startled at this announcement, but refrained himself from commenting.

* * *

Kabaji sat on his bed silently. He stared at nothing. Thought about nothing. Said nothing. Did nothing. 

Renji was having a particularly bad time about it.

How was one supposed to collect data without a working information source?

Kabaji continued to sit silently on his bed. Looking, saying, doing and thinking nothing. He reminded himself that the thinking was most important.

Atobe had definitely said that Yanagi Renji could pick up on his brainwaves.

//Think nothing… // he reminded himself again.

* * *

Oshitari strolled towards his room in a particularly good mood. 

Sure, it could have gone better. He could actually be rooming with Yanagi Renji instead. Oshitari was positive that there could be a ton of fun to be had out of teasing the Master.

But…

Kirihara was a different type of apple.

//One with lots of crunch. // he mused thoughtfully, pushing open the door to his shared room and stepped nimbly to one side as a bucket of water came crashing down.

A smirk appeared, along with a glint on his glass lenses, "Too slow."

Oshitari continued on his way to his bed successfully avoiding two well hidden booby traps and a poorly aimed dart.

//Must be taking lessons from the Trickster. //

The banging and crashing caught the attention of next door, which just happened to be Hiyoshi and …

"AKAYA!"

Sanada.

* * *

Hiyoshi walked into his room with a curt nod at the fukubuchou of Rikkai. He felt a little petty since he knew he probably be better behaved towards a senpai. 

But that little comment of Oshitari's still rankled a bit.

//I am not as stiff and upright as Sanada. I never will be… // Hiyoshi sniffed in his mind quietly.

A loud splash was heard in the next room down. Both of them looked at each other, startled, but when no further sound was heard, they looked back down and continued with their respective activities.

Sanada with his unpacking, Hiyoshi with his wall staring.

With a sigh, Hiyoshi came to the conclusion that he might as well initiate some form of communication between them.

Before he could however, loud bangs, crashes and booms sounded from next door. This time, they were in series.

Both Sanada and Hiyoshi rushed to the door and out.

* * *

Shishido glared at everything and nothing at the same time. It was an amazing feat. He had greeted his roommate for the next week with a grunt and nothing else when he entered. 

At the moment, Shishido was fuming.

At Atobe.

At everything.

At nothing.

But particularly at his roommate.

Shishido knew that Yagyuu Hiroshi had done nothing wrong at all, but he felt that the other boy was in some way responsible for letting his doubles partner room with Choutarou.

Yep. It was all the Gentleman's fault.

* * *

Jirou peeked into his room carefully and muffled his 'sugois' and 'suges' as he spotted his long time idol, Marui Bunta sitting in THEIR room blowing bubbles with his bubblegum. 

Taking in a deep breath, unable to bear the excitement anymore, Jirou charged into the room and glomped Bunta. "Marui-kunnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!"

He rattled on about how cool he thought Bunta was and how wonderful Atobe was for allowing him to room with Bunta.

"…And when Atobe told me that I was getting to room with Marui-kun I was so excited. I didn't even think about sleeping for a whole ten minutes! Isn't that amazing Marui-kun? Oh… You look kind of funny purple. Is that a new bubblegum thing to be able to turn your whole face the color of the gum?"

* * *

Atobe knocked on the door before entering the room that he and Yukimura would share for the next week. 

The other buchou stood up as Atobe entered and smiled.

Atobe immediately motioned him to continue on with whatever he was doing. "I hope you're settling in well."

Yukimura chuckled a little and replied, "The hospitality is excellent."

There was a lull as both considered the best move to make next. Atobe's thought drifted to the positioning of rooms in his 'cottage'.

He and Yukimura shared the left wing of the third floor with Kabaji - Yanagi.

Hiyoshi - Sanada and Oshitari - Kirihara shared the right wing on the same floor.

Gakuto - Jackal, Jirou - Marui had the left wing and Choutarou - Niou and Shishido -Yagyuu had the right wing on the second floor.

The left and right wings were separated by no less than three sweeping staircases, multiple other rooms and a communal library. All this meant that apart from the other pair who shared your wing, you were a fair way away from any others.

Atobe had figured that this way, the Rikkai team wouldn't have to really exert themselves to try and keep the troublemakers, namely, Kirihara, Niou and maybe Marui, under control. He had it from excellent sources that Sanada, Yagyuu and Jackal could do wonders with the one who stepped out of line. If all else failed, he could probably count on Yukimura to step in and exert some control over his underlings.

Besides, Atobe had to make sure the troublemakers from his team were in control. Choutarou could be counted on to keep Shishido in line. Jirou and Gakuto got along the best, whereas Gakuto and Oshitari seemed to have a fight every second day. Thus the reason he put his tensai with Hiyoshi. The future Hyoutei captain could be counted on to control himself, but an extra eye on him wouldn't hurt.

With this in mind, Atobe correctly concluded that the crash must have happened on his floor but on the opposite wing.

His eyes met Yukimura's and they both reached an understanding.

//If you don't say anything, I won't either. //

* * *

Well? This was a bit longer than I originally planned but oh well. I think it was better too XD. I know that it might be a little confusing with all the rooming arrangements etc. but the information isn't actually that important. I just put it there to help me keep track of who's where and with whom. Also, I'm sorry if it sounds a bit fragmented... Just setting the scene. 

Please? Review? I live on them now XD


	4. The Fun is Just Starting

**Training Camp… Or Not**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the Prince of Tennis cast and only about a quarter of this storyline for the first few chapters. XD I wish I did though...

**Chapter summary: **Features more boys who aren't happy with their roommates and a talking wardrobe. Jackal's fun begins as does Oshitari's. Niou plots and Shishido doesn't appear. Jirou is still as happy as one can be. OMG Akaya! What the hell did you do to Sanada?

**Warnings: **Crack, OOC and shounen ai.

**A/N: **Woot, it's Chapter Four already! Thank you everyone for the reviews! They totally made my day... **  
**

For **Sandy**.

* * *

**Chapter Four: The Fun Is Just Starting…**

Niou nodded. "Choutarou it is then. You don't have to bother with the 'san'," he added. "Just Niou will be fine for now."

The barrage of noise from the floor above startled him, but he didn't let it show.

He raised an eyebrow and explained to an anxious-looking Choutarou, "It's just our resident brat making a nuisance of himself again. Nothing to worry about. He /probably/ won't cause any permanent damage to your teammates."

* * *

Jackal hadn't commented on his roommate's rude remark because he was experiencing a very odd sense of deja vu. He could remember, last year, Akaya saying almost exactly the same thing, except for the fact that the younger boy had actually gotten the name right. 

Before Jackal realized it, he'd relaxed and broken into a very small smile. He could deal with Akaya-type brattiness. Especially when he wasn't directly responsible for them.

"Mukahi Gakuto, right?" he said calmly and continued unpacking. "Jackal Kuwahara. I'd shake your hand, but I don't want to catch rabies or anything."

* * *

"KIRIHARA AKAYA, what /DO/ you think you're DOING?!" 

They hadn't even been here for ten minutes, and already the junior was causing trouble. Scowling ferociously, Sanada stormed into the room from where the noises had come from. He brushed past Oshitari without looking at him and glared at a small wardrobe next to the window.

"We spent the entire coach trip lecturing you on how you should behave!" he fumed, "Can't you behave for just ten minutes?"

"Was just testing something," the wardrobe muttered sulkily.

"Well, don't! If you were testing Oshitari-kun's reflexes, then you could have waited until tennis practice or something."

"Wanted to see what an angry tensai looked like," the wardrobe mumbled.

Resisting the urge to roll his eyes, Sanada stalked across the room and bodily dragged a scowling Kirihara from inside the piece of furniture. He spun him around to face Oshitari. "Apologize, Akaya."

Giving Oshitari a look that said, perfectly clearly, that Akaya wasn't at all sorry, he muttered, "M'sorry."

* * *

In the left wing of the second floor, Marui was having problems of his own. 

"Nngghn," he said intelligently, pushing futilely at Jirou's shoulders. "Can't... breathe!"

He sucked in air gratefully as a wide-eyed, practically tearful Jirou finally released him, babbling apologies and promises to make it up to him somehow. Poor Bunta couldn't get a word in edgeways.

"Look!" he finally shouted, grabbing Jirou by the shoulders to hold him still. "If you be quiet for the next..." he checked his watch quickly to see how much time they had left of the fifteen minutes, "four and a half minutes, I'll give you some of my gum and teach you to do one of my super-tensai skills later. Deal?"

* * *

"Rabies?!" Gakuto shrieked at Jacket or whatever his name was. "Who the hell has rabies?!" 

There was no answer from the other boy as he calmly continued to unpack.

"I'll show you rabies…"

Stalking up to the much taller Jackal, Gakuto picked up the closest thing to hand from his newly-moved-in pile of luggage and smacked the taller boy with it on the head, hard.

"HAHAHA!" Crowing with triumph, the short acrobatics specialist didn't notice the strange look that Jackal gave to him and then to the furry teddy bear that now lay on the floor.

* * *

Oshitari smirked and shoved his glasses up his nose. Kirihara seemed to be an interesting handful. He was sure that they'd get along fine. 

He stepped in smoothly as Sanada looked ready to throttle his younger teammate at the insincere apology. "I'm sure Kirihara-kun didn't really mean anything by this."

The waved hand encompassed the wreck of a room. Sanada started twitching but released Akaya.

Oshitari smirked again and ruffled his roommate's hair. "I bet Kirihara-kun will promise to be a good boy from now, right?"

For an answer, Kirihara stuck out his tongue and let fly a missile he had kept hidden behind his back.

Raising an eyebrow, Oshitari avoided it with ease, ducking out of the way and leaving the coast clear for Sanada to catch a water balloon full on the face.

Let's just say that the fukubuchou was not a happy man.

* * *

Jirou stared at Bunta who stared back. They had sorted out their differences and come to a compromise. 

Jirou will refrain from glomping Bunta; Bunta will feed Jirou pocky or other various sweets.

Jirou will refrain from yelling out Bunta's name at every opportunity; Bunta will play tennis with Jirou.

Jirou will go to sleep at night and not pester Bunta with questions; Bunta will teach Jirou some of his tensai moves.

They both came to a silent agreement that it was a small price to pay for fulfillment or in Bunta's case, silence.

* * *

"... Oops." 

Looking guilty, Akaya eyed the door, trying to judge whether or not he'd be able to escape through it without being caught.

When a soaking wet Sanada actually /growled/ at him, he took a wary step backwards so that Oshitari was in between them. "Sorry, fukubuchou!" he said quickly. "I didn't mean to, honest!"

"... Yukimura will punish you later," was Sanada's only comment, uttered through gritted teeth.

Summoning up the tattered shreds of his dignity, the normally intimidating fukubuchou of Rikkai made his way back to his room. It didn't really help that his shoes now squeaked with every step, but he managed to stoically ignore it.

* * *

"Well then," Yukimura said, finishing unpacking his immediate essentials, "shall we start your training camp, Atobe? I've been looking forward to seeing how Hyoutei runs their training sessions," he commented. 

Behind the polite smile, Yukimura was making notes in the back of his mind about Akaya and Sanada.

If things had gone the way they usually did, either Akaya would be nursing a bruised head, or Sanada would have retreated to his room with a massive headache.

Either way, tennis usually solved both injuries.

Oh, and aspirin too, of course.

* * *

I hope this is getting better, or at least remains at a readable level ". I'm giving it my best shot... So would you review… Please? It'll make me very happy and give me the opportunity to stare at your reviews for hours on end, grinning stupidly. XD 


	5. More Fun Apparently

**Training Camp… Or Not**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the Prince of Tennis cast and only about a quarter of this storyline for the first few chapters. XD I wish I did though...

**Chapter summary: **Niou sets his devious plan into action and Choutarou blushes a lot. Shishido tries to pick a fight and Yagyuu is /slightly/ jealous. Whilst everyone is getting acquainted, Atobe and Yukimura begin their mind games and calculations. Gakuto is ignored and feels extremely neglected.

**Warnings: **Crack, OOC and shounen ai.

**A/N:** Wow! This story got 1000 HITS! Woot! I'm a very, very, very happy bunny at the moment. Again, a big thanks to everyone who've continued reviewing and everyone who's reviewed. You guys totally ROCK!

For **Sandy**.

* * *

**Chapter Five: More Fun. Apparently.**

"So, Choutarou, tell me about yourself," Niou drawled, sitting up on the bed and resting his chin on his hands. "Are you and that doubles partner of yours... involved?"

Ah, the blush that spread like wildfire over the second year's face was /most/ gratifying.

Choutarou gulped a couple of times and stared at the floor. "Anou… Niou-san… I mean, Niou, Shishido-senpai and I are just friends. Really good friends." Choutarou mumbled with an ever growing blush on his face.

Niou looked amused at the other's predicament and raised an eyebrow, "Oh?"

The taller junior blushed harder under the disbelieving gaze and nodded emphatically. "Yes. I swear. We're just friends."

Turning his gaze downwards again, Choutarou didn't notice the evil looking smirk the Trickster decided to let out.

If he had, he would have been very, very scared.

* * *

Atobe raised both of his eyebrows as the noises subsided. //Hmm… // 

He noticed a slightly distracted Yukimura. In fact, the other captain seemed to be counting silently. Or at least taking notes about something.

"I'm sure you'll enjoy the facilities available for use here." He continued on smoothly as if Yukimura never paused. "Everything is state of the art and many things aren't available on the mainstream markets yet."

Inside, Atobe was also taking notes and doing a silent countdown.

//In about ten seconds, I expect a second explosion, this time involving Shishido. A minute after that, Gakuto is going to knock on my door to complain about Oshitari and god knows what else. At lunch, Jirou will corner us with Marui in tow to show him off. Hmm… Don't think I've missed anyone. //

Sure enough, just as the Hyotei buchou finished his thoughts, a humongous smash echoed throughout the entire 'cottage'. His smile turned a little forced.

Yukimura's smile turned a little wild. //That better not be Akaya… //

* * *

Shishido had decided that he wasn't going to stand another minute with Yagyuu. In a word, the other boy was BORING. 

"I'm going down to lunch," he muttered as he walked out.

Deciding to get Choutarou on the way, since Shishido deemed Niou to be a bad influence and wanted his cute kohai to have nothing to do with the Trickster, he stopped outside the next room.

He took in a deep breath and pushed the ajar door open a bit wider. The sight that greeted his eyes did not make him very happy at all.

Choutarou was standing far too close to Niou for his comfort. On top of that, the second year Hyotei regular was blushing as hard as any schoolgirl. To top it all off, Niou was smirking as if he was the cat that ate the cream.

Ohtori hadn't noticed when Shishido made his way into the room but Niou hadn't missed it. Deliberately, he allowed his fingers to graze along Choutarou's forearm, causing the other boy to jump back, directly onto Shishido.

"Ahh… Shishido-senpai!" The wide eyed second year blushed even harder, if that was possible, and jumped forward again. Only, this time he fell directly onto Niou.

Shishido's eyes went demon red (similar to a certain Rikkai regular) and steam started gushing out of his ears.

"Get your dirty paws off him!" he hissed at a now openly cackling Niou.

When Niou refused to comply, Shishido cracked it completely and threw the nearest thing he could at the other boy, wanting the whole thing to be sorted out before anyone could interrupt.

All that meant was that Shishido wanted a decent go at the Trickster before anyone could come and break it up.

Pity the closest thing happened to be a breakable, antique bedside lamp.

The blue capped boy gloated happily for a moment before noticing that Choutarou was also currently covered in little shards of porcelain.

"Noooooooooo! Choutarou!" he howled as he dove for the bed.

* * *

Gakuto stomped towards Atobe's room, fully intent on venting his frustrations. Verbal only of course. 

Imagine his surprise when not only Atobe, but Yukimura as well, were already standing in the corridor looking like they expected him.

"Atobe! Whatever were you thinking of when you assigned that Jacket person to room with me? He is a complete and utter crack job. He said that I have rabies. Rabies! The nerve of him…" The short red haired boy fumed and waved his arms around in a dangerous manner.

Atobe merely tugged at his shirt and walked past the pouting acrobatics specialist. "Go talk to Oshitari. I have a little problem on the second floor I need to sort out."

Gakuto fumed more, "YUUSHI! I'm never talking to that rat…"

His words faded out as both buchous walked purposely away.

What they didn't hear couldn't hurt.

* * *

Niou seized the opportunity granted to him by Shishido with both hands. 

Literally.

As Shishido dived for Choutarou, Niou smoothly pulled him up so that Shishido fell into the side of the bed with a crash, which he mostly managed to muffle by saying loudly, "Ahh, look at that. You've got porcelain all over you. Here, I'll get it off - wouldn't want you to hurt yourself now."

So saying, he brushed at the deeply red junior's clothes. When he saw Shishido's murderous expression out of the corner of his eye, he decided to try and push his luck and made the brushes just a little more caressive.

* * *

Yagyuu had, after a few moments of indecision, decided to follow his apparently short-tempered roommate and retrieve Niou in the bargain. He'd lost sight of Shishido by then, and wandered in a full circle before the loud crash, shortly followed by another, sent him running in the right direction. 

Just like Shishido, he wasn't at all pleased with what he saw.

For some reason that he couldn't quite fathom, Shishido was lying by the side of the bed, clutching his shoulder and glaring daggers at Niou, who was... /stroking/, for lack of a better word, Ohtori's back and shoulders.

"... What's going on here?" he asked, squashing down a small nagging emotion that he suspected was jealousy.

All three pairs of eyes turned to him. Niou gave him a friendly grin, whilst anyone not closely acquainted with him would probably have described the expression as an evil smirk.

"Hey, Yagyuu," he said. Then it clicked in Yagyuu's mind; Niou hadn't called him by his family name in years. There was no reason for him to begin now unless…

Oh. /OH/.

Damn it, sometimes Niou played the /nastiest/ tricks.

* * *

Am editing these chapters like crazy. All of these so far have been RPed by Sandy and I, since my own solo efforts aren't nearly as good. Be good and leave poor little me a review. Please? I'll totally give you cookies… XD 


	6. Ranidaphobia?

**Training Camp… Or Not**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the Prince of Tennis cast and only about a quarter of this storyline for the first few chapters. XD I wish I did though...

**Chapter summary: **Hiyoshi gets a very interesting case of hero worship. Marui questions himself and Jirou is psychic whereas Atobe curses his Insight and Yukimura, Yagyuu and Niou learn an interesting fact about the Hyoutei team. Shishido and Niou are still having a cat fight over poor Choutarou. The poor, poor darling…

**Warnings: **Crack, OOC and shounen ai.

**A/N: **I'm still getting reviews! That totally makes me so happy… XD But do tell me in the reviews what you would like to see more of or less of or any type of idea you have that you think would fit. I'd be very grateful for any pointers in the right direction and who knows, you might spark off some almost dead thought process in my brain. Anything… LOL

For **Sandy**.

* * *

**Chapter Six: Ranidaphobia?**

"So where're we having lunch again?" Marui asked his roommate, who was obviously struggling not to burst out into loud yells. Well, at least it seemed to be keeping him from collapsing into narcoleptic slumber. Marui would have absolutely no idea what to do in that situation - should he leave him? Get help? Carry him? Try to wake him up? There were so many options.

Mentally, Marui started to plan some sort of revenge on Atobe for coming up with this room arrangement. The boy must be either very sadistic or completely insane, in his view. "Probably both," he muttered absently, not realizing he'd said it out loud.

* * *

Hiyoshi stayed a wary distance from the sopping and fuming Sanada as both made their way back next door to their room. 

He was filled with a sense of awe towards the Rikkai second year ace, Kirihara. The other boy had 'taken on' Sanada and 'won'. In a sense.

Maybe he should start taking lessons…

* * *

Jirou had to keep his hand in front of his mouth as he bounced silently in circles around Bunta. 

He had promised not to make a huge fuss by yelling, screaming or otherwise announcing his Marui-kun's presence to anyone, anywhere.

Sleeping was currently the furtherest thing from his mind as he gleefully thought of the next seven days spent in close proximity to the pink haired tensai.

The thought was enough to make him squeal, silently of course, and punch the air with equally silent 'sugois' and 'suges'.

Bunta gave him a weird look, but Jirou didn't even see it. However, he did hear the muttered comment that the other boy spoke out loud, "Probably both…"

Jirou stopped immediately and a huge grin appeared. "Are you talking about Atobe? He's so awesome isn't he? But his Insight is scary sometimes since sometimes he just tells you things that you didn't even know. Apart from that he's the best buchou EVER!"

Violet eyes blinked. //How on earth did he know I was referring to Atobe?//

* * *

Shishido was on the warpath. 

Niou had dared to lay his hands on HIS Choutarou.

This meant WAR.

Snarling a curse at the smirking Trickster, Shishido circled around the bed quickly, ignoring the jiggling pain in his shoulder.

Niou stepped to one side as he tried to make a grab for either Choutarou or his captor who was still running his hand casually up and down Choutarou's back.

Grinding his teeth at the failure, the blue capped boy stood and thought about his next move.

//Have to corner him// he finally decided.

He took a step forward only to take another back as Niou sauntered past him with an arm around the still blushing second year, making sure to keep the bed in between them.

Breathing heavily in anger, Shishido was about to do something extraordinarily rash, such as throw Yagyuu at Niou, when he heard the familiar drawl of his buchou.

"Hmm? Do you honestly need ore-sama to baby sit you Shishido?" The arrogant smirk was firmly in place on Atobe's face as he took in the situation in a glance.

"Atobe! Niou… He… Choutarou… They…" Shishido tried to get a full sentence out in his anger but failed miserably.

Choutarou had taken the opportunity to escape from Niou as the other boy's hand slackened their hold on him. He quickly made his way to Shishido's side and touched his shoulder gently, "Are you alright Shishido-san?"

The older boy looked up at his kouhai and nodded.

Niou snickered behind his hand but stopped immediately as he spotted Yukimura behind Atobe. //Uh oh… //

Yagyuu just sighed and took a firm, if slightly possessive, hold of Niou's arm, leading him away from the site of potential damage. "Let's go down to lunch together."

Atobe looked from his doubles one pair to Rikkai's doubles pair and shook his head; he saw through Niou's plan at once and already had a good idea of what had passed in this room before.

"I did not need to know that…" he muttered to himself as his Insight kicked in.

Yukimura had a sympathetic smile waiting for him when he turned. "I'm sorry about Niou. He enjoys games too much. I don't think you have this much trouble with your team."

Atobe smiled back, slightly incredulous, "Then obviously you haven't seen my team on a bad day. The chaos is at least ten times what it is now. Especially if frogs are involved."

A frown. "For some reason, most of my team is ranidaphobic. It's all very strange."

Soon, Atobe would regret ever revealing this information.

* * *

Marui stared at Jirou. "Are you like, psychic, or something?" he asked warily. 

Seriously, this guy got weirder and weirder every time they met, he was sure. "I /was/ talking about Atobe, as a matter of fact. He's got to be totally crazy and maybe nearly as sadistic as 'Haru in a bad mood. Oh, that's Niou, to you," he clarified.

He did think the silent bouncing was quite sweet, in a sort of... puppyish kind of way. It was the same sort of vibe as Akaya gave off - except, where Akaya was a rabid puppy, Jirou was more like a hyper puppy. With narcolepsy. Marui almost rolled his eyes. Surely, even when he was on a particularly bad sugar high, he wasn't as bad as this!

He thought nagged at him. He tried to ignore it, but his concentration span was limited at the best of times. Eventually (three seconds later), he caved.

"Hey, Akutagawa-kun?" he asked. "You've seen me on a sugar high before, right? Once or twice? Was I like..." he wondered how to phrase it. "Um... like, totally hyper, bouncing around everywhere, talking at top volume, that sort of thing? I wasn't, was I?"

* * *

"Radinophobic?" Yukimura raised an eyebrow. 

"Fear of frogs," Yagyuu called over his shoulder as he and Niou left. Yukimura nodded in understanding.

"Ah. That's odd - most of /my/ team love frogs. I think Akaya kept a few as pets last year... they all ended up being eaten by his neighbor's dog, though. I remember he cried for days," Yukimura reflected fondly, an affectionate smile on his face.

Atobe gave him an odd look; apparently, he couldn't fathom Yukimura's affection for the, frankly, totally unstable junior.

Out in the corridor, an unholy gleam had entered Niou's eye. Yagyuu spotted it immediately, and guessed what he was thinking a split second later. "Don't even think about it," he said warningly. Niou gave Yagyuu his version of an innocent smile. It made him look twice as demonic as before.

"Think what, Hiroshi?" he asked. He got a stare in return, and looked away with a small shrug.

"Isn't it interesting, though?" he mused. "I'll bet Shishido's scared of them too..."

Yagyuu's eyebrows moved down a fraction of a millimeter, signaling that he was frowning. "Why are you trying so hard to torment Shishido?" he asked. "I saw you teasing Ohtori-kun in there. You were doing it just for fun, right?"

Niou tilted his head. "Maybe, maybe not," he drawled.

Ah, now, this really was perfect.

"He's a cute kid. Kind of innocent-looking, you know? I'll bet he hasn't even had his first kiss yet. Why…? Are you jealous Hiroshi?"

Yagyuu answered that with another stare, knowing that if he protested vocally, Niou would just laugh and say he was in denial.

"Ahh, don't worry, Hiroshi. I'm just playing."

"Hn. Watch Ohtori's feelings. If he's as impressionable as he seems, you might end up making him have a crush on you."

Niou snorted. Well, obviously! That was practically half the whole point. "Ha! Better me than that arrogant cap-boy," he sneered.

"You're just as arrogant sometimes," Yagyuu pointed out. Niou looked affronted.

"Am not!" he protested.

"..."

"Am not!"

"..."

"I'm /not/!"

"..."

"Ah, screw you, bastard."

"..."

* * *

Well… I guess it's going somewhere now… Kinda… Sorta… Ok… Maybe not. XD Review please! Thanks 


	7. Shortcuts

**Training Camp… Or Not**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the Prince of Tennis cast and only about a quarter of this storyline for the first few chapters. XD I wish I did though...

**Chapter summary: **Akaya starts getting a bad vibe about his roommate and Hiyoshi becomes traumatized. Shishido and Niou continue to wage a cold war over Choutarou whilst Yagyuu has a headache. Jackal is strangely happy and shortcuts are mentioned continuously.

**Warnings: **Crack, OOC and shounen ai.

**A/N: **Yeah! It's the seventh chapter!!!! (Don't worry… there's totally nothing important in this A/N. You could so skip it. XD) Thanks to everyone who's been reviewing! It totally brightens this world!!!!

For **Sandy**.

* * *

**Chapter Seven: Shortcuts**

Kirihara poked his head out from under the bed where he had crawled right after when Sanada had growled at him. The only other live object in the room apart from himself appeared to be Oshitari.

"Is fukubuchou gone?" he whispered.

Oshitari looked up from the novel he had apparently picked up and nodded genially. "Yep. He's gone, along with Hiyoshi."

The second year ace sighed with relief and crawled out from under the piece of furniture.

"Why are you still here?" he asked stretching.

Oshitari put away the book and smiled an even more genial smile, "Because I'm waiting for you… It's common courtesy to show your roommate around, especially if they're strangers to the area."

"Che… Won't you be late for lunch?" Kirihara muttered. Internally, he was starting to get freaked.

//The smile looks like Niou crossed with 'Mura on a bad day. The attitude is like Renji on a data spree. In other words… He's SCARY… //

The Hyoutei tensai glanced at his watch and shrugged, "We've still got one minute. It's plenty. If we go by a shortcut."

Kirihara was immediately forewarned by the slight smirk that appeared. "What shortcut?"

* * *

Hiyoshi took a bare glance at his watch and then stared at it. 

Shock and horror were mixed on his face.

One minute till lunch was served.

If he was late…

God help him.

Atobe hated tardiness, especially in one who was being groomed to lead Hyoutei on next year.

//Dance… Laps… School… EMBARRASMENT… //

Those were the only thoughts going through Hiyoshi's head. He had once been unfortunate enough to turn up late to an occasion.

It was… HORRIBLE…

Hiyoshi was positive he was in a coma for more than a day, knocked out by the extreme exercise and embarrassment.

Sanada looked slightly worried at the sudden blank look on the second year's face. "Hiyoshi?"

No response.

"HIYOSHI!"

Still nothing.

Frowning now at the obviously unnatural state his roommate was in, Sanada started towards the younger boy, intending to shake him out of whatever world he was currently in.

Hiyoshi could skip with his purple bunnies and scatter flowers in Hiyoshi-world another time. Sanada really needed to attend to Yukimura, which meant going down to lunch, which meant getting Hiyoshi to show him the way since he, embarrassingly, would get himself lost.

At that point, another concern took over the usually stoic fukubuchou of Rikkai. //Why on earth did I think of purple bunnies and flowers. I don't even like purple bunnies. Pink bunnies are nicer… They don't bite… //

Imagine his surprise when the other boy suddenly came back to life again and dragged him out of the room screaming something about 'late', 'dances' and 'shortcuts'.

* * *

Niou and Yagyuu sat patiently at the dining table. Or at least, Yagyuu sat patiently whilst Niou fiddled and snuck flirtatious glances at Choutarou. 

This made Shishido tense up and glare and caused the second year under dispute to blush.

Yagyuu rubbed his temples. Aspirin would be good right now.

* * *

Shishido glared at the silver haired Trickster. 

//Do. Not. Dare. Touch. /MY/. Choutarou. OR ELSE. // Was the mental message he was screaming to Niou.

Niou didn't look fazed at the murderous edge to the blue capped boy's look. He just ignored him and kept trying to hit on Choutarou with looks.

Choutarou felt a little uncomfortable under Niou's gaze. //But Niou-san really doesn't mean anything by it… Niou-san just likes to tease people… I do hope Shishido-san doesn't take this the wrong way… // He tried to reassure himself mentally, still unable to truly turn Niou-san into just Niou.

At that point Atobe and Yukimura walked in side by side.

* * *

"Hmm? I see we only have the four of you here." Atobe took a glance at his watch. "The rest of them have a minute to show before…" 

Just as the Hyoutei buchou was about to finish his sentence, loud stomping and complaining was heard from just outside the room.

Sure enough, Gakuto stormed in from the opposite door from Atobe and Yukimura and proceeded to rant and rave exclusively on the stupidity of his roommate 'Jacket'.

Choutarou blinked and asked hesitantly, "Anou, Mukahi-senpai… Isn't your roommate's name 'Jackal?' "

This stopped the short acrobat for a full second before he shrugged and continued.

At that point, the man under the rant appeared. Slowly, taking his time, Jackal made his way to Niou and Yagyuu's side and plopped down next to Yagyuu with a slight smile.

Ignoring his roommate as if the other boy didn't exist, he turned to the others on the table and asked, "So what have I missed?"

* * *

Uh oh. Shortcut?

Shortcuts were never good things, in Akaya's experience.

For instance... There was the time when he and Marui were late for school, having been doing some early morning tennis practice and lost track of time. So Marui dragged him through a shortcut which ended up taking them to the complete opposite side of town.

And then there was that time Niou-senpai had taken him on a shortcut through Tokyo's back alleys during the Kantou tournament, and Akaya had been nearly groped by several random street guys.

He shivered at the memory and said firmly, "I think I'll survive being a little bit late. I'm /not/ taking a shortcut."

* * *

"Missed? Only one of the most stressful ten minutes of my life," Yagyuu muttered. Niou snorted and waved a dismissive hand. 

"Ah, ignore him. I've been getting acquainted with Choutarou. Ne, Chouta-kun?" he smirked, giving the junior a little wave and looking very pleased with himself when the poor boy's blush deepened.

"Haru," Yukimura said mildly, sitting himself down in a chair next to Atobe. Niou immediately dropped his gaze and gave Yukimura a small apologetic smile. Gakuto raised an eyebrow and made a quiet whiplash noise, which earned him a deadly glare from the Trickster. Niou made a mental note to plan something nasty for the acrobat later.

The doors burst open again, and Hiyoshi ran in, dragging a shocked-looking Sanada behind him. "Am... am I late?" he panted anxiously. Sanada shook off Hiyoshi's grip on his wrist, massaging it grumpily and stalking over to sit next to Yukimura.

Marui and Jirou came through the doors too, in mid-conversation.

"Ne, ne, Akutagawa-kun!" Marui was whining. "You haven't answered my question yet! You can be honest. Please? Please? Please?"

* * *

Well… I'm sorry if it's a bit over the place. XD It is still a RP after all… It'll be just me going solo in a couple of chapters. Review please! Thank you!!! 

BTW: Any requests for pairings or events you want to happen or don't want to happen? I can't promise that they'll appear (or not appear XD), but I can promise that I'll try my best! XDDD Thank ya all!!


	8. Avoidance

**Training Camp… Or Not**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the Prince of Tennis cast and only about a quarter of this storyline for the first few chapters. XD I wish I did though...

**Chapter summary: **Atobe and Yukimura make small talk while ignoring the silent battles being waged across the dining table. Sanada pleads with his eyes and Jackal is on holiday. Akaya wants to lock himself up in a wardrobe and Kabaji has a thought process. Pure insanity…

**Warnings: **Crack, OOC and shounen ai.

**A/N: **2200+ Hits!!!!!!!!! Yahoo!!! Yah! Thank you everyone for your continuing support! Without it, this story would be left on the wayside. Thanks!!!

For **Sandy**.

* * *

**Chapter Eight: Avoidance**

Surveying the various unsatisfied-looking tennis players sitting at the table, Yukimura sighed silently. Although, Jackal looked pretty content. In fact, he looked as though he was on holiday.

Rikkai's buchou hid a smile behind his hand. Jackal probably did feel like he was on holiday, not having to baby-sit anyone and having fun into the bargain. Maybe they should do this again sometime, for his sake.

* * *

Oshitari was about to protest when he heard something that sounded like a stampede from the room next door. 

Poking his head out, he was just fast enough to catch the sight of Hiyoshi running full speed down the corridor dragging a limp and scared looking Sanada behind him.

At the sight, Oshitari actually removed his glasses, wiped them and put them back on just to make sure he wasn't seeing things.

Of course, the fact that he had perfect vision and the glasses were just there for aesthetic reasons wasn't considered at all.

"Yo! Kirihara!" he called to the younger boy still huddling inside the room, "You just missed the sight of your fukubuchou being dragged down the corridor by our future buchou."

Kirihara snorted, but moved slightly towards the window, "As if."

Oshitari's real smirk came back full force and sauntered back into the room again, holding a hand out to the second year, "If you don't believe me, come. I'll show you…"

Kirihara gave the smirking tensai one look and shook his head vehemently. "No. No. No. No. NO!"

The poor, cornered second year started backing away only to bump into the wardrobe in which he had been hiding in earlier.

Quickly, Kirihara jumped back in and barricaded the door. Or, at least he tried to. There wasn't much to barricade it with.

Looking left, right, up and down, Akaya prayed for divine intervention.

It came. Just not in the sense he had hoped.

* * *

Hiyoshi collapsed into a seat next to Choutarou with a sigh. "Not late. Good." Was all he muttered. 

Choutarou looked a little concerned at his friend's behavior, "Ne, Wakashi? Are you alright?"

Shishido tore his gaze from Niou for a brief moment to raise his eyebrows at the panting second year. "Yo, Hiyoshi… You didn't by any chance take that so called shortcut did you?"

Hiyoshi didn't reply, just glanced askance at his third year senpai.

Shishido started snickering, his bad mood forgotten. "I was joking when I told you that was a shortcut. It actually takes you three times as long to go through that passage than if you just came down the stairs."

His snickers became full blown laughter when he calculated the speed at which his kouhai would have had to run at to have reached the dining hall on time. Shishido laughed even harder when he saw Sanada's expression. He was so convulsed with mirth that he ended up on the floor.

Niou took the chance and immediately occupied Shishido's now empty seat next to Choutarou.

"Chouta-kun…" he practically purred as he reached out a hand just to brush against the second year.

Choutarou's look of concern for Hiyoshi immediately changed into a full fledged blush. "Niou… Niou-san!"

"Uh uh…" Niou shook his head. "Just Niou."

"Niou…" Choutarou swallowed nervously as Shishido stopped laughing and returned to his previous mood.

Murder Niou Mood, was what Yagyuu had dubbed it as.

Jackal watched on in amusement, Sanada in something akin to horror.

The Rikkai fukubuchou started to turn to his buchou in a silent plea for him to stop this nonsense before it escalated any further.

His plea went unanswered as both Yukimura and Atobe strategically avoided all eye contact with anyone but each other.

"So, what do you think of the place so far?" Atobe was asking Yukimura.

The blue haired boy nodded, "Very nice. It was very kind of you to invite us here."

Atobe waved the comment away, "Oh… It's nothing. We should always maintain good relationships with our rivals…"

He frowned as he checked his watch, "That reminds me. Where is Oshitari?"

Yukimura appeared to look around for the first time, ignoring the bickering between Niou and Shishido and the puppy dog eyes that Sanada was giving him. "That also reminds me. Where are Renji and Kirihara?"

The Hyotei buchou's frown settled in more on his brow, "Kabaji?"

There was no answer.

"Kabaji is missing too…" The obvious was stated.

Hiyoshi opened his mouth to say something, but he shut it again at the glare Sanada gave him. Sinking back into his chair, the Hyoutei second year glared back and then looked away.

"Hmm…" Both buchous settled deeply into thought, still skillfully avoiding eye contact with everyone.

Eyeing the furiously escalating cat fight between Shishido and Niou, Sanada resisted the urge to pull out his aspirin. He was getting low on them and needed to save them for later.

However, he made eye contact with Yagyuu and sighed. Pulling out the last remainders of his wonder cure drug, Sanada handed eight over to the Gentleman making sure he took double that amount.

These were really starting to lose effectiveness.

* * *

"Chances that this shortcut won't work: 99 percent..." Renji muttered as he jotted some words in his notebook. 

Kabaji just blinked, he didn't know how the other boy could see in such light.

Hold that thought. He didn't know how the other boy could see full stop. It was freaky having the Master look at you with closed eyes. It was definitely an unnerving experience having him walk around and 'look' at everything too.

Shrugging internally, Kabaji made his way after the Rikkai data collector as he tried to find the way downstairs.

Kabaji was very single minded. It had never crossed his thoughts to offer the Rikkai boy some help since he knew the pathways like the back of his hand. He had assumed that the other would ask if he needed it.

Despite that conviction, the tall, hulking second year still wondered why they were up in the attics, tripping over dusty memorabilia. Maybe he shouldn't have stayed silent when the Master obviously read the signage wrong at the last corner.

The arrow that was pointing up said Up: Attic.

The one that was pointing down said Down: Dining Hall.

He still didn't understand how Renji got the two mixed up. A stray thought dawned in his mind. Maybe the Master /couldn't/ see with closed eyes. Another thought intruded. Then how did he manage to walk around without walking into walls?

Just as he was about to feel the actual need to communicate, in some way, with the Master, a blur blew past him at an extreme speed. Kabaji blinked. He could have sworn, if he was a swearing person, that the blur looked vaguely like Hiyoshi dragging a member of the Rikkai team.

A scratch on the head. It was all too confusing for him.

The data master of Rikkai blinked, as well as he could with closed eyes, as the blur whipped past. "Why… It looks like Genichirou."

Renji waved cheerfully, "Hi!"

Sanada's eyes were wide with an unknown emotion which looked somewhat like pleading. "…Ren…Renji…" He managed to croak out as he moved past and reached out a hand.

Renji, however, ignored it all and whipped out his notebook instead and scratched something into it. "Never knew Genichirou was such a social being. Must have this down…"

"Ren...ji…" Sanada's voice grew weaker as he disappeared at a surprising speed. //Probably driven to such speed in his need to attend to Yukimura...// Renji mused to himself.

A strangled yelp sounded, but from a distance. "Oh," Renji didn't look up but waved a hand in the direction he thought Sanada had gone. "See you later Genichirou…"

As he recorded this priceless data on his close friend, another thought intruded into his havoc wreaked mind. He looked up and in the direction that Sanada had disappeared in. "If we follow the path Genichirou took with his new Hyoutei friend, maybe we can find our way down again."

The book snapped closed. "I am brilliant." Renji started walking, following the burn marks on the carpet. "Aren't I, Kabaji-kun?"

Kabaji blinked and thought it was better not to voice his real thoughts. "Usu."

* * *

XD I hope you liked that… More crack to come… Soon. Review please! Thanks. 

BTW: HUGE thank you to everyone who gave some input about what direction/pairing they wanted to see! XDD I've actually listed down all of them… And they are /wonderful/. My story is going to be much more crack thanks to all you guys!!! If anyone has anything to contribute; whether that be the pairing you would most like to see or what event you would like to see happen, just put it on a review… Or, you can IM or email me! I don't mind…

Thanks again!!!!!!!!!


	9. Line of Duty

**Training Camp… Or Not**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the Prince of Tennis cast and only about a quarter of this storyline for the first few chapters. XD I wish I did though...

**Chapter summary: **Yagyuu starts waxing poetic and Jackal is confused. Niou and Shishido continue their war and Akaya finds something that just may turn the tide in his favour, or not. Yukimura and Atobe team up to freak Sanada out. It's all written in such style…

**Warnings: **Crack, OOC and shounen ai.

**A/N:** Yah! Yah! Yay! I've run out of things to say at the beginning…. It's just me being lame today… XD ANYWAY… Read the A/N's at the very bottom of the page for a competition… (Or so I think anyway…)

For **Sandy**.

* * *

**Chapter Nine: Line of Duty**

Shishido scowled and grinded his teeth. "You. Are. Such. An. Idiot…"

Choutarou gasped, "Shishido-san, you promised not to swear."

Immediately, Shishido looked apologetic but before he could say something to comfort his poor, traumatized junior, Niou started laughing, in a slightly evil manner.

"Ha," Niou snorted derisively, "is that meant to be an insult? Tsk tsk. Watch out, the schoolteacher might put you detention for saying naughty words!" he mocked sarcastically, enjoying himself hugely, unlike Shishido who just looked plain furious.

Ha, well, if he was furious now, Niou couldn't /wait/ to see the look on his face after he woke up to find his room full of frogs...

"Ne, Chouta-kun, is your senpai always so vulgar?" Niou drawled, turning his back pointedly on Shishido to talk to the junior.

Yagyuu felt the overwhelming urge to get up and go after Yukimura and Sanada but he remained seated. He felt that it was his duty to stay and protect the innocent, namely Choutarou, from the evil that was his doubles partner. The Gentleman honestly doubted that the word 'innocent' went with the word 'Shishido' either, but he concluded that the blue capped boy was the lesser of two evils.

"Duty cannot exist without faith…" He muttered under his breath. "And I have faith in Niou's evilness."

With that, Yagyuu held his glass up as if in salute, "And if I die in the line of duty, I shall be able to say: I tried. And I failed."

Jackal turned questioningly to him, "Did you say something?"

* * *

Inside the wardrobe, Akaya's overactive imagination was providing him with some very appropriate horror-film music as he hoped for a miracle to save him from this bizarre, terrifying Yanagi/Niou/Yukimura hybrid. 

Trying to squeeze himself through the solid back of the wardrobe, Akaya's hand suddenly brushed what /felt/ like a snake. He let out a muffled 'eep' of alarm, before his more reasonable side kicked in and pointed out that snakes didn't really feel like that, anyway.

Cautiously, Akaya felt around until he found it again, and held it up to the tiny crack of light coming in through the shut doors. It was, of all things, a dried, stuffed frog.

'What the hell?' he thought. 'Why is /this/ in one of Atobe's wardrobes?'

Still, it didn't matter. What had Atobe said just before? Phobia of frogs...

Closing his eyes and giving the dead frog a whispered apology, Akaya pulled open one of the doors and flung it out, aiming for Oshitari's chest.

* * *

Yukimura finally made eye contact with his dearly beloved fukubuchou as the other boy swallowed a whole load of pills. 

"Ne, Genichirou, I don't think all that aspirin is good for you…" he told his vice smilingly.

Atobe snorted but refrained from any comments. It wasn't his place to butt in anyway.

However, he did stand up. The missing status of his tensai was starting to worry him a little. Also, getting away for a little bit from this circus would probably do him some good.

"I'm going to check on Oshitari." Atobe announced to the room in general, expecting them to be awed at his prowess.

The little corner comprising of Shishido, Ohtori and Niou didn't even notice. Yagyuu and Jackal, who sat next to the bickering duo plus Choutarou, looked up from their extremely deep conversation and nodded in a genial manner.

Hiyoshi was still trying to calm himself down and muttering about 'embarrassing situations' and 'dancing'.

Atobe frowned. He should really consider a slightly less traumatic punishment for the second year. He didn't want to lose the future buchou of Hyotei to an asylum this soon. After next year he wouldn't care, but not now.

To the diva's surprise, Yukimura also stood up and with him, Sanada.

"We'll join you. It'll be good to stretch our legs out a little bit." Yukimura smiled at Atobe sweetly.

The Hyotei buchou just nodded, not bothering to point out the fact that they only had been sitting at the table for less than two minutes. "Sure. I'm certain that you probably want to check up on your junior ace, Kirihara, ne?"

Both buchous smiled at each other in understanding. Sanada swallowed and took a small step back.

Perhaps faking sick and staying home wasn't such a ridiculous idea after all…

* * *

Oshitari caught the frog in surprise and stared at it for a brief moment before dropping it. But not from surprise, or as Akaya expected, horror. In fact, the Hyoutei tensai didn't run, screaming from the room in fear. 

"Akaya-kun," Oshitari drawled instead, poking at the obviously dead frog with the tip of his shoe. "You know it's disrespectful of you to throw a dead body around." A smirk crossed his lips briefly.

"Come on out and we'll go down to lunch together…" The last was said with such anticipation that it made Akaya gulp.

Oshitari's smirk widened as he saw the entire wardrobe shaking. "No. No. NO. NO!"

Akaya looked around frantically again. There /had/ to be a way out of here before Oshitari got to him. Or else…

He gulped again. Or else he'd end up like a dried husk in the horror movie he saw yesterday. Come to think of it, Oshitari reminded Akaya of the insane, knife wielding, blue haired villain from the movie.

A knock sounded on his wardrobe door and a soft voice called, "Akaya-kun, come out…"

"EEK!"

And no, Akaya did /not/ just scream. Screaming was for girls. He merely shrieked.

In a manly manner.

* * *

Wah! Sorry that this is shorter than usual. I needed to leave some bits for the next chapter… XD 

A/N: If anyone can name the author/person who uttered the quote 'Duty cannot exist without faith' and tell me the two Titles he held, I'll let you request anything (even my kitten XD). LOL. You get cookies as well!! Email me with the answer instead of leaving it in the review… The first five (if that many people bother... XD) get to request... Or more, or less... XDD

ANYWAY... It totally goes to show that I've become bored and need some challenges...

Winners will be announced next chapter!!!

Please review…! Thanks!!


	10. Of Bets and Aspirin

**Training Camp… Or Not**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the Prince of Tennis cast. XD. I wish I did though... But I do own the storyline from here on!

**Chapter summary: **Really, Chouta-kun is much too innocent and very 'gekidasa daze'. Why does Shishido now want to murder Gakuto and what is this about a to-kill-list? Yagyuu and Jackal hold a very thought invoking conversation and Atobe reminisces about his childhood. Now we totally know why these boys are on crack… Or not.

**Warnings: **Crack, OOC and shounen ai.

**A/N: **It's Chapter 10!!! And with 3000+ Hits!!!! Wow… I guess it's a milestone on both fronts! Now… What should I do to celebrate it? Any suggestions? XD

Well, I had three replies to my competition last time... XDD I really wasn't even expecting one... So... Congrats to the three of you... You know who you are. You can IM or email your requests whenever you like (One or more characters, a situation/or a prompt and any extra information you wanted to give me). I'll see what I can do! I will attempt to have them up before New Year. Thankies to everyone who reviewed last chapter!! Whee!

For **Sandy**.

* * *

**Chapter Ten: Of Bets and Aspirin**

Yagyuu didn't even bother sending Jackal a glance. "No. You must be hearing things."

Jackal didn't comment any further but watched with slightly narrowed eyes as Yagyuu swallowed down the handful of small pills with a sip of water.

Yagyuu sighed and smiled slightly, not that it was easy to tell. That was a load off his chest. He turned to the sole hairless member of his team and returned the slightly quizzical look that was being given to him. "What is it Jackal?"

The other boy continued to watch the Gentleman studiously. "I've been told that aspirin makes people go a funny color. Last time I took it, Akaya informed me that I turned green."

Yagyuu made a sound like scoffing. But obviously it wasn't, since the Gentleman never scoffed. "And you believed him?"

Jackal continued with his staring. "No. But when he kept repeating it, I went to check my reflection out in the mirrors. I was mostly /definitely/ green."

The defense specialist patted his bald head in a troubled manner. "Ever since then, I've been afraid to take aspirin again."

Yagyuu looked away and muttered softly, "Ah. So that's why all the clubroom windows and mirrors were painted that day. Makes sense."

"What did you say?" The defense specialist asked, obviously more interested in the tones of Yagyuu's skin.

"Nothing much. I don't think you'd be interested."

"Ah."

* * *

Niou continued to purr questions at Choutarou whilst keeping an ear on Yagyuu's conversation. That little point with the green paint had just won him fifty bucks from Marui. Finally, someone had figured it out.

He /knew/ Akaya had been behind it. Marui had insisted that some non-regular did it as a dare. So they had made a bet on it.

Of course, giving Akaya the paint and instructing him on what to do was another point entirely. But Niou had wanted the cash off Marui. He also knew that Marui would definitely not have paid if he knew that the Trickster had been behind it. So Niou had been forced to wait. Till now…

"Chouta-kun…" Pleased, he reached out a hand to clasp Choutarou's. Shishido's growl made him smile. This was great fun.

Choutarou pulled his hand out of Niou's and tried moving towards Shishido. "Uh, Niou-san… I mean Niou… Please stop teasing Shishido-san, he's slightly sensitive."

"Choutarou!" Shishido yelped at his kouhai's words. "That is so not cool."

The silver haired second year turned puppy eyes onto Shishido. "But Shishido-san, it's the only way to make Niou understand how you feel."

The blue capped boy almost choked at how wrong that sounded.

Niou merely continued to smile and made a sound like a pleased kitten.

Oblivious, Choutarou continued, "If he understood that teasing you is wrong, he won't tease you anymore."

Shishido wanted to smack his head against the table. Repeatedly.

"Choutarou…" He groaned, "You're too innocent. People like Niou, who have no soul, don't have morals like you."

Niou looked up, interested in this theory of Shishido's, and decided to use this to his advantage and tease some more. He smirked, "Say, Shishido, aren't you glad I swapped my soul for this silver color of my hair?"

Shishido growled a forced reply. "No."

Choutarou looked from one to the other, wide eyed and his gaze settled on Niou. Obviously, he had remembered something, "Ne, Niou? Can you /really/ sell your soul to the devil in exchange for things?"

The Trickster stared at the innocent looking boy for a moment before bursting into laughter. He patted Choutarou on the back, "By god you're a funny one."

There was an outraged choking sound from Shishido and Niou stopped laughing. He surveyed Choutarou again and his eyes widened a bit. "You were serious?"

Shishido did bang his head against the table this time.

Damn Gakuto for thinking that stupid thing up. Poor Choutarou was so innocent he actually thought it was true. Shishido mentally made sure the red haired acrobatics specialist moved up three spaces on his to-kill list, he would fix the actual list when he got back to his room.

Shishido's blue eyes narrowed slightly and turned to glare at Gakuto. He ended up glaring at the spot Gakuto once occupied instead. He cracked his knuckles and growled a little louder. Once he saw the short dimwit again, he'd make sure that he learned a lesson.

Outside the room, on the stairs leading up to the second floor, Gakuto paused. He sneezed once and felt an impending sense of doom and ill will coming towards him. The red head shivered and skipped up the stairs slightly faster. He needed Yuushi. Right now.

* * *

Oshitari, at the same precise moment that Gakuto did, sneezed once as well. Akaya took this as a sign from above and streaked out into the corridor.

He ran blindly down the stairs and ran bang smack into a solid object. Looking up, he realized it was many solid objects.

"BUCHOU!" He yelped and threw himself onto Yukimura. Akaya clutched tightly onto his captain's midsection. "Pleasedon'tmakemegobacktothatreallyscaryguyIthinkhewantstomurderme…"

Sanada growled slightly under his breath and grabbed Akaya, drawing him away from his precious Yukimura. "Be careful Akaya. You might damage Yukimura."

The buchou under discussion smiled sweetly, "It's alright, Genichirou. I'm not that easy to break."

Atobe coughed and looked away. The three Rikkai boys in close proximity with each other reminded him strangely of a time when he was younger.

Ah, those were the days…

Atobe's face held a pleased, far away look as he remembered playing 'Happy Families' with the rest of his now third year team members.

Of course he had been the 'insane-and-cheating-dude' and ordered everyone around. Shishido was the 'stupid-woman-who-was-cheating-and-hung-around-the-insane-and-cheating-dude-hoping-for-more-cash' while Jirou had been the 'love-child-of-the-stupid-woman-and-the-cheating-dude' and Oshitari had been the 'old-man-with-too-much-cash-and-was-married-to-the-stupid-woman'. Gakuto wasn't allowed to play with them until Oshitari had spoken up for him. After that, Atobe had reluctantly allowed the tiny red head to be the 'murderous-next-door-neighbor'.

Now looking back on it, Atobe wasn't sure if modeling his 'Happy Family' from midday soap operas was such a good idea. It actually might explain why his team was so dysfunctional.

* * *

So…? Good, bad or ugly? Please leave me a review on your thoughts XD Even if you hated it. I totally need them to continue life as a human being.

I'm also curious as to how many people read DNs... Could you maybe leave a little comment on whether you find DNs as interesting as Fanfiction? I'd be grateful... Research you know... XD

Anyway! A MERRY (EARLY) CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! I hope you all get the presents you wanted and have a great day!!! WHEE!


	11. Cuteness and Evilness

**Training Camp… Or Not**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the Prince of Tennis cast. XD. I wish I did though... But I do own the storyline from here on!

**Chapter summary: **Atobe wonders why and how Oshitari became so scary while Jackal and Gakuto entertain the room with their antics. Why on earth does Jirou go to sleep even though Marui is right next to him? Don't miss the pink sugary fluff surrounding the Silver Pair and Platinum Pair. Well, maybe not the Platinum Pair... They're kind of too unfluffy to fluff. Right?

**Warnings: **Crack, OOC and shounen ai.

**A/N: **It's big! BIG I SAY! I've gotten 100+ reviews AND this story has almost gotten 4000+ hits!!!! Wheee!

THANK YOU SO MUCH TO EVERYONE WHO REVIEWED!!!! I'm indebted to you forever. XDD I hope I can continue to live up to all of your expectations. XD

For **Sandy**.

* * *

**Chapter Eleven: Cuteness And Evilness**

Atobe surveyed the various happy, unhappy and strangely oblivious middle school students scattered around his dining room table.

Finally, after Yukimura managed to calm Akaya down enough to persuade him to join them and Oshitari at the same table, everyone had begun lunch.

Atobe took a fleeting glance at the ornate grandfather clock ticking away in the corner. They were about ten minutes behind schedule. He gave Oshitari a look that said clearly that they would be talking about the matter later. Atobe had been slightly surprised at /how/ traumatized Kirihara actually was. He never knew Oshitari to be so… menacing.

Gakuto tugged at his partner and close friend's sleeve, "Ne, Yuushi? We are going to play doubles together right?"

"Hmm? I don't know… It all depends on what Atobe's plans are for this training camp." The blue haired boy pushed his glasses up his nose more firmly and sent a smirk Atobe's way. He knew exactly what Atobe was thinking. Riling up his captain was always fun.

Gakuto continued as if Oshitari hadn't said a thing. "I do want to beat Marui and /Jacket/. Apparently they're nationally ranked." The short acrobat's voice was pitched to rise over the quiet babble that surrounded the table.

Silence fell for a brief moment as all eyes turned to focus on a smirking Gakuto before everyone's gaze settled on Jackal.

Jackal opened his mouth.

The room held its collective breath.

Jackal raised his fork filled with salad.

The entire room raised their eyebrows and Sanada looked like he was ready to jump under the table anytime now.

Jackal maneuvered the salad into his open mouth and chewed. "Mmm…"

The whole room figuratively sweat dropped and turned back to Gakuto.

The short tennis player shook his fist dramatically at the oblivious Jackal and turned resolutely back to an openly smirking Oshitari. "Do. Not. Say. A. Thing."

* * *

Meanwhile… 

Marui was still tapping Jirou on the shoulder every now and again. "Ne, ne, Akutagawa-kun, you still haven't answered my question. Am I really hyper when I'm on sugar?"

Jirou looked slightly startled at the question, as if he hadn't heard it a thousand times before. For the record, Jirou had probably been too busy trying to muffle his yells and curb his urge to yell to pay any attention to what Marui had actually been saying. But Jirou hesitated only a moment before bouncing up in his seat and finally giving in to his urges. "Marui-kun is SUGOI!"

As soon as he uttered those words, however, Jirou clamped a hand over his mouth. He had forgotten about his and Marui's deal. He wasn't allowed to yell out any words like that in front of everyone else.

Quickly turning away, in the hopes of Marui forgetting his little indiscretion, Jirou slipped himself into a slumber and couldn't be prodded awake no matter how Marui tried.

Yagyuu took a moment, as Shishido and Niou armed themselves before their third round, to note to Marui, "Bunta… I don't think that poking a sleeping person is going to get you anywhere. Besides, if you really want the answer to that question, it should be directed to one of us. After all, every time you go sugar high and destroy something, it is always us who gets you out of it."

He turned back just as Niou broke the temporary truce with a well aimed insult and sighed. Duty called.

* * *

Renji did his calculations again and again. He ended up with the same conclusion. It was /impossible/ to gain any data from Kabaji. 

Opening his Hyoutei Data book, Renji quickly started another calculation, all the while muttering something about 'data', 'zero percent' and 'death'.

Sanada overheard the last word and gave his longtime friend a quizzical but wary look.

The last time Renji was heard saying that word, the entire Rikkai team was almost wiped out by his new-and-definitely-not-Sadaharu's-juice mixture, as dubbed by Renji. Sanada glanced over at his captain just in time to see Yukimura nodding and smiling at something Atobe had said.

His focus went back to glaring at the Hyoutei buchou. Who was Atobe to gain so much attention from /his/ Yukimura?

* * *

Yagyuu sighed. Then he sighed again. Niou heard both and threw him a quick, non-evil grin. "What's wrong?" 

When Yagyuu just looked back at him expressionless, Niou angled his head and raised his eyebrow. Yagyuu never sighed and always had some response ready for any of his questions or at least a 'dot dot dot'.

The silver haired boy looked back to Shishido, "Say, what did you do to Yagyuu? He sighed."

Shishido glared back and spoke before he thought. "Whatever you're not doing to Choutarou."

An enlightened look dawned on the Trickster's face, along with an evil glint in his eyes. "So… That means you haven't been communicating, but you have been seeing some /action/. Poor Yagyuu… To have the attentions of the likes of you forced upon his person."

Shishido spluttered at the insinuation but thought better of answering. It was a lose-lose situation anyway.

Choutarou colored at the Trickster's words but turned anxious eyes onto his senpai. "Shishido-san? Is it true?" His voice was barely above a whisper.

Shishido whipped back in time to see Choutarou's soulful brown eyes gazing at him. "Of course not. How can you believe /him/ over me? We're best friends remember?" The older boy almost choked on the last words but his silver haired kouhai looked greatly happier.

"I'm sorry that I thought such a thing about you Shishido-san. I…" Choutarou bowed his head in shame.

Shishido put his hand on top of Choutarou's and they met each other's eyes with a smile.

Niou, for the first time, was thrown slightly off kilter by this scene. He leaned back into his chair and did something similar to pouting, except for the fact it was a highly /evil/ version of pouting. It put shivers down the Gentleman's spine and directed his mind to Akaya. Cute but deadly.

It was going to be a long seven days…

* * *

Hiyoshi was bored. 

The interesting vibes that surrounded the table had paled into less than interesting. He looked up in time to see his roommate, Sanada, who sat directly opposite him, direct a glare to Atobe. Intrigued, the second year boy followed the psychological, non verbal, sparring volley that followed.

It became quite boring quickly though, since it was just a one sided, highly emotional, facial monologue, mainly by glares and eyebrow twitches, by Sanada. He managed to get the gist that it had something to do with Atobe trying to steal Yukimura or whatever. Hiyoshi didn't care about that, however, he did manage to pick up several never before glares. Who had known eyebrows could be used like that?

Almost, as if they had a mind of their own, Hiyoshi's eyes slid to the second year who sat two seats down.

Kirihara Akaya. Now that was someone that Hiyoshi wanted to be. A stray thought entered the normally sane, or as sane one can be in Hyoutei, second year's mind.

If Kirihara had skills good enough to 'defeat' Sanada, wouldn't those same skills enable him to 'gekokujou' Atobe more easily too?

Eyes narrowed, Hiyoshi took another bite of his salad, chewed and pondered some more. Now all he needed was an excuse to approach the Rikkai second year…

* * *

Review. Please? Just pity this poor little person… PLEASE? XD Many cookies and delicious food stuff will be coming your way! I swear! XD 

Happy Holidays to all you special people!!!


	12. Training Begins Or Not

**Training Camp… Or Not**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the Prince of Tennis cast. XD. I wish I did though... But I do own the storyline from here on

**Chapter summary: **Finally the boys are standing on a tennis court. But why are they so uneasy? WHAT?! What did you just say Yukimura?!!!

**Warnings: **Crack, OOC and shounen ai.

**A/N: **XD Completely no point to this A/N at all. So feel free to skip it. Ah… Except for the fact that the next update will be, at the fastest, on the 8th of January. " Am sorry, but some things have come up that really need sorting out. XD So I've decided on a double update. Two chapters, one today and one tomorrow, just to tide you over. XDDD

Happy (early) New Year EVERYONE!!! I wish everyone the best for 2007!

For **Sandy**.

* * *

**Chapter Twelve: Training Begins… Or Not**

Yukimura nodded and looked over the plans Atobe had handed to him. They stood on Atobe's private tennis courts which were attached to this particular mansion. Yukimura had been impressed by the number of courts and the obviously well maintained state of them.

"That should be fine; in fact that's a really good idea. You wouldn't mind if I borrowed it would you? I can see endless possibilities with my team with this idea." The blue haired captain smiled with genially with just a slight spark of evilness lurking about the corners of his mouth. Atobe wasn't too surprised. One did not become the captain of a nationally ranked team without having a couple of mean streaks. Of course, having /weird/ team members seemed to be another prerequisite.

He waved a hand, "Of course. Feel free to incorporate this into your own training regime. Now… About the introduction to the actual thing, did you want to do the honors?"

Yukimura nodded and another smile, this time with slightly more evilness showed. However, his voice remained as soft and calm as ever. "It'll be my pleasure."

The two captains were discussing training plans alone. For the time being. Although everything had been planned out beforehand, Atobe always had a back up plan ready in case something went wrong, which it always would. However, these plans needed Yukimura's cooperation since the Rikkai captain was the only one with enough authority to command complete attention and loyalty from the rumbustious Rikkai horde.

Atobe smirked as he watched the Rikkai vice captain come stomping out of the house. He could almost feel the anger of the glare directed his way before the look softened into one of almost adoration when the tall, imposing boy gazed at Yukimura.

His Insight was more than useful at the moment.

Ah… Team dynamics were all too easy to figure out. Take the two doubles pairs for instance… It was obvious that Niou and Yagyuu were more than friends. However, Atobe couldn't, as yet, figure out the reason why Niou was currently trying to seduce Choutarou. But Rikkai's other doubles team was just that, a team. Marui seemed to glance more in Kirihara's direction than not, whilst Atobe thought Jackal was the only straight one of the lot.

But there was an interesting development after that. Atobe's smirk grew wider as the rest of both the Hyoutei and Rikkai teams started to drip and drag out of the mansion. Kirihara was walking beside the 'Master', Yanagi Renji, who was patiently answering something the junior had asked him. Marui sulked behind, pouting. Niou was pointing out Marui's displeasure to an indifferent Yagyuu, whilst Jackal walked slowly at the very back taking everything in.

He sensed, more than saw, Oshitari stop right behind him with a still complaining Gakuto. Shishido's voice could be heard grumbling about 'Niou' and 'stupid captains'. Atobe's eyebrow twitched slightly at the last comment as did Sanada's. Choutarou's voice could be heard quieting down the hot tempered Shishido. Kabaji dropped Jirou off on a bench and took his place to the side and back of Atobe. Now they were ready to truly begin.

Yukimura nodded at Atobe's glance and moved forward to stand by his side. Sanada growled but didn't actually say anything out loud. A big smile appeared on the Rikkai captain's face as he watched the gathered tennis players. Jackal was watching him back politely and waved when Yukimura's gaze slid over him. Yagyuu was slightly distracted by Niou who was throwing insults at Shishido. Akaya was complaining to Renji and Sanada looked ready to explode from anger.

Yukimura frowned a little. He wasn't used to not having his team's complete attention on his person. In fact, he couldn't remember a single time when they weren't listening to him adoringly.

Atobe raised an eyebrow as his team didn't fall silent from awe immediately. Instead, Shishido was growling something obscene under his breath at the Trickster and Choutarou was pleading with him to stop. Oshitari smirked at him and raised his own eyebrow. Gakuto was glaring at Jackal who ignored him while Hiyoshi was staring at Kirihara. Jirou was still asleep and Kabaji was the only one who watched him faithfully…

Hold on. Atobe's gaze shifted back to Hiyoshi. The golden haired boy was indeed watching Kirihara instead of him. Atobe twitched a little and looked displeased. Not only was team ignoring him, Hiyoshi, the future captain of this team, was obsessing over the Rikkai ace, instead of him. Not that Atobe /wanted/ Hiyoshi to obsess over him of course.

He didn't.

Really.

At that point, Yukimura silenced everyone with his sweetly announced comment, "Keigo and I wanted to tell you that we're official now."

The silence that both captains craved fell. A pleased smile spread over both of their faces.

Then:

"WHAT?!" was the simultaneous yell from at least ten throats.

* * *

Short, I know. But I like a cliffie and had always wondered how it would be to write one. XD Mind you, it's honestly not much of one. XDDDD

You all know what I crave by now. XD REVIEWS! YES! I NEED THEM! Have a little pity on this poor writer… Please.

Whee! See you tomorrow for the next part of my double update!!!!


	13. Hugs and Horror

**Training Camp… Or Not**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the Prince of Tennis cast. XD. I wish I did though... But I do own the storyline from here on!

**Chapter summary: **Say… When did Atobe have /that/ kind of urge? oO; Awww… You poor, poor thing Sanada, I'm sure Yukimura didn't mean it. Did he? Anyway, why is the Rikkai Dai buchou having such dramatic mood changes? Oh, don't miss the Rikkai regulars becoming a human tidal wave! Just the normal, everyday happenings…

**Warnings: **Crack, OOC and shounen ai.

**A/N: **Again, I'll apologize for my upcoming hiatus for about two weeks. If I can, I'll start updating again earlier. Anyway… TCON (this fic) HIT 5000+ hits!!!!!!! AHHHHHHH! Thank you everyone for your support!!! Hope you continue this support in 2007!!! XD

A (still early) Happy New Year to you all!!!! (Come on… Just 5 and a bit more hours to go…)

Wishing you all the best for 2007! And let crack!tenipuri take over more unsuspecting people. XDD

For **Sandy**.

* * *

**Chapter Thirteen: Hugs and Horror**

Yagyuu and Renji both tensed and simultaneously made a grab for their fukubuchou who had apparently gotten a case of wobbly legs.

"Yukimura…" was the only thing Sanada could say. And he said it over and over again until Renji poked him with the tip of a pen. Then he began making soft mewling sounds of distress.

Atobe's pleased smirk at shutting everyone present turned to a frown of irritation as the Rikkai vice captain started whimpering.

Ever since he was little, Atobe had a damnable soft spot for small, helpless creatures. Although Sanada didn't technically qualify as 'small' or 'helpless' under any circumstance, including this one, Atobe still had to suppress the urge to go and cuddle Sanada.

Another thought intruded. //It can't be that serious if I walked over and patted his head or something right//

He ridded that thought almost immediately. God knows what his team would think if that happened. A small turning down of his lips signaled his displeasure at the thought. Knowing his team, they'd probably rebel. Turning resolutely away, Atobe faced Yukimura.

"Can you do something about that?" Atobe hissed, elegantly of course, to the still smiling Yukimura.

Yukimura seemed to only /just/ notice the condition of his vice and blinked his violet eyes. "Oh dear… Genichirou, are you quite alright?"

The whimpers became louder and Sanada ducked his head, burying it into his hands. Something that looked suspiciously like a sob racked his body.

The Rikkai team was quite used to their fukubuchou enter this depressed state since Yukimura seemed to make it his mission to announce that he was going out with or engaged to someone different every week. What the Rikkai team couldn't understand was why their captain had chosen to continue the game during a /training camp/ of all things.

The Hyoutei team were edging away from both the Rikkai team and from where Atobe and Yukimura stood.

A proud smile found itself on Atobe's face as he watched them.

//At least training them to trust their instincts and flee at extreme danger didn't go wrong… // He turned to observe Sanada again//However, I do not see what sort of danger he presents. Maybe he's going to cry. //

Atobe's eyes widen imperceptibly with horror//Oh my god. Don't let him cry! I won't be able to suppress the urge to cuddle him then//

* * *

To Atobe's immense relief, and to the surprise of the Rikkai Daigaku regulars, Sanada did not burst into tears. At least not visibly.

As soon as the black haired vice stood up straight again, the Hyoutei team had crept back to stand before the two captains again.

Yukimura turned to face Atobe with a slightly perturbed look. The blue haired captain had never had so little reaction from Sanada after such an announcement. The fukubuchou hadn't even started wailing before he had righted himself again. Yukimura adored Sanada of course, but he couldn't help but tease him just a little. The look turned into something akin to a pout.

The entire Rikkai team surged forward in a human tidal wave in an attempt to cheer their captain up.

"Ne, ne, Buchou??! Look! I can do tricks with my gum…!" Marui was popping weirdly shaped bubbles at an alarming speed which caused uneasy looks from everyone but Jirou. Hyoutei's volley specialist applauded and danced around with his hands over his mouth at the same time. Even Atobe looked surprised at how Jirou managed that feat.

Yukimura barely gave him a glance.

Akaya pulled out three rainbow colored tennis balls from god knows where and started juggling. "Ne, ne… Buchou! Look, I've learnt how to juggle!!"

Yukimura's eyes didn't even lighten.

Niou stood a few meters away with an evil smile and pulled out a pair of throwing knives from behind his back. Yagyuu looked startled since he recognized the weapons but made no move to stop Niou. At least not until Niou made a mock throwing motion towards the still juggling Akaya. "Ne, ne buchou! Look! I've learnt how to impale Akaya with throwing knives!"

Yukimura actually blinked this time round.

Sanada and Yagyuu both started a charge towards Niou; Sanada to stop any potentially embarrassing situations and Yagyuu because he wanted his damned knives back. However, both of them realized that they couldn't get there in time since the knives had already left Niou's hand. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on your feelings towards Akaya, they still missed.

Rikkai's wall of defense, Jackal Kuwahara, stood towering over their sole second year who sat on the floor with the rainbow colored balls scattered in three different directions. Jackal had plodded his way over to Akaya with a resigned expression when the junior had pulled out the balls and removed him from Yukimura's sight just as Niou released his weapons.

Both of the would be 'saviors' also found that they couldn't stop in time. Ahead of them loomed the impressive, or not so impressive, form of Yanagi Renji. Sanada swore he saw the Master's eyes open for a brief instant before their imminent collision. However, all of that was forgotten as Sanada managed to stop /just/ before he touched Renji. Since Yagyuu didn't collide into his back, Sanada figured that the Gentleman had managed to stop himself too.

A small sigh of relief left both Sanada and Renji's mouths. But it was a moment too soon.

"Excuse me…!" A usually calm and collected voice, currently stressed, sounded from behind.

Sanada started to turn. "What is it Ya…"

CRASH.

Niou skipped a couple of steps backwards and found himself next to Choutarou. A smirk found its way onto his lips. "Say… Fancy seeing you here, Chouta-kun."

Shishido growled. Oshitari smiled. Everyone else standing nearby blinked at having a Rikkai student amongst the Hyoutei crowd.

Yukimura started laughing. Everyone turned to see what was so amusing.

Yagyuu was on the very top. His glasses were askew and he was never less of a gentleman than he was at that moment. The words that were coming out of his mouth were /less/ than gentleman like.

Renji was under him. Literally, in a general manner. He was scribbling in his notebook again. "Priceless… Never had the pleasant experience of being sandwiched by Yagyuu /and/ Sanada."

Kirihara twitched at this and it's implication but it just made Yukimura laugh harder. Atobe sent a quizzical look Yukimura's way but did not venture to say anything.

At the very bottom, like the lower slice of bread, lay Sanada on his stomach. He didn't look overly pleased. "Renji…"

The Master looked up from his scribbling. "Hmm? Was there something you wanted Genichirou?"

A low growl made its way out of Sanada's throat. But he managed to sound civil and grounded out a soft, "Get. Off. Me."

"Oh…" It seemed to occur to Renji for the first time that Sanada's position just /may/ be /slightly/ uncomfortable. "OH…"

He craned his neck as far as he could to look up at Yagyuu. "Say… Hiroshi? Can you please move off me? I think Genichirou just may be motivated to bite me any moment now…"

Yagyuu broke off from muttering curses at Niou; since there was /no one/ else who would have dared to push him that hard, especially considering Sanada was the one standing in front, and looked down. "Right…"

He tried to move off in the most natural way possible but it didn't work out as he reckoned. Without his glasses, Yagyuu was blind as a bat and twice as helpless.

He eventually managed to slide down, but not until he managed to somehow kick Sanada three times where the-sun-don't-shine and step all over Renji's hair.

Renji then crawled off Sanada and brushed out his hair vigorously. Dust flew. So did Renji's pen. "Hmm… Yagyuu, or at least his feet, seem to be highly dusty. I wonder why… Perhaps Niou's theory of him being an ancient tomb mummy may just be true."

Yagyuu heard the last comment and shoved his glasses back up his nose firmly. "Niou-kun…" His voice was back to the cool tone that everyone was used to.

"Yes, Yagyuu-kun?" Niou tried sounding as innocent as possible but doubted his ability to escape punishment. Everyone called /him/ vicious. But when it came down to it, Yagyuu was a hundred times better at keeping a grudge and a thousand times more devious when carrying it out. Niou decided then and there that he was going to get someone to taste his food and drinks before he did for the next couple of days.

Yagyuu just gazed coolly at Niou who blinked several times and tried not to shuffle around.

By that time, Sanada had managed to climb off the ground and dust himself off. He still moved awkwardly due to kicks that Yagyuu had managed to inflict on a, ahem, delicate part. Marui and Kirihara were currently holding onto each other and howling with laughter.

Yukimura stood currently supported by Atobe since he was giggling. The entire Hyoutei team stared and then inched closer for a better view. The formidable buchou of Rikkai was /giggling/. It /had/ to be history in the making.

* * *

Yah! I hope this chapter made everyone happier. You wouldn't believe the number of people who were almost as shocked as Sanada at Yukimura's statement. XDDD

Please… please leave a review for this poor writer. You all know that I live, eat, drink and breathe reviews by now. So… FEED ME! XD

Thanks again for your support this year! See you all in 2007!


	14. Science and Folklore

**Training Camp… Or Not**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the Prince of Tennis cast. XD. I wish I did though... But I do own the storyline from here on!

**Chapter summary: **Well… It's practical canon that Rikkai are devil worshipers. Or so claims /some/ Hyoutei players. Science and myth is woven together and distorted when it comes to our darling Hyoutei and Rikkai boys. That is canon. Anyway… Practice is commencing normally. Or as normally as it can go with various…'influences'.

**Warnings: **Crack, OOC and shounen ai.

**A/N: **I'm officially back from HIATUS! Whee! -throws party- Ahem. Anyway…

Eek! I'm so sorry!!! -bows- Fanfiction dot net stuffed up again. I didn't start getting my reviews till past New Years. And for the reviews that I replied to… I don't know if they got sent or no. So if you asked me a question and I haven't gotten back to you, please, email me or something. I SWEAR that I'll get to you then. And another sad piece of news is that starting from now... I'll only be updating this once a week. :(

But the good thing? I've gotten another story up!!! Yup! I've taken a leaf out of Sandy's book and set another fic, way down the timeline of TCON. XD If you wanna read, just go and find **Forfeits and Wagers**.

Onto other news! OMG! I've hit 6000+ I'm so happy! Thank you to everyone who's been reading. And an even bigger thank you to everyone who's reviewed. I'm glad that TCON makes you happy!

For **Sandy**.

* * *

**Chapter Fourteen: Science and Folklore**

Finally, everyone had settled, somewhat, and thus the training commenced. Or so it seemed. For now, it was just simple skills that any first year could pull off. When the two teams grumbled, Atobe and Yukimura sent both glares and smiles their way. Sufficiently cowed, they started. However, chaos couldn't help but prey on these unsuspecting middle school students. Apart from one Niou Masaharu anyway.

Yukimura's fond gaze on the Trickster was of some slight surprise to Atobe. He could not comprehend why Yukimura didn't just do a little altar dance and summon the devil himself to smile on instead. In fact, Atobe was already sure that the entire Rikkai team worshipped the devil. Gakuto had already spoken of candles and makeshift altars that seemed to reside with Jackal.

//And here I thought /my/ team was insane… // Was Atobe's slightly haughty thought.

Unfortunately for Atobe, it is a well known phenomenon for insanity patients to think that they're normal.

Really. It's scientifically proven.

* * *

Yagyuu watched his doubles partner with slightly narrowed eyes as the silver-haired boy whistled a cheerful tune and spun his racquet around. Yagyuu's eyes narrowed even further when Niou pranced in front of him a little more. That little trick from before was going to cost the Trickster.

//He's just like a moving target. // Yagyuu mused thoughtfully and longed for those throwing knives that Niou had somehow stolen from him. Yagyuu's longing turned into something slightly more sinister. He couldn't wait to get back into his room and see which poison he could use in tonight's meal.

* * *

Niou was quite aware of Yagyuu's more than innocent gaze in his direction. He knew that his little game earlier had stirred up the Gentleman's less gentlemanly side but hey, it was no fun otherwise.

So therein lay his reason to prance around like a live target. Niou /wanted/ Yagyuu to get riled up. Niou /wanted/ Yagyuu to want revenge. Then Niou will simply manipulate things to his advantage and find himself a nice padlocked room, preferably with a bed and Choutarou in it, and hide away.

A pause. Maybe Akaya as well. And Niou was sure Yukimura would be more than willing for the chance at his new game. A smirk lit his face and he rubbed his hands together. A horde of irate… 'partners' chasing after him. What could make life more perfect? Apart from actually acquiring those frogs he ordered of course.

He smiled at Choutarou who just /happened/ to be facing him with Shishido, the younger boy flushed and smiled hesitantly back. Turning to the side, Niou gave Yukimura a covert grin which the violet-haired boy returned with a genial wave of a hand. //Thank /you/ buchou. //

* * *

Marui looked a little glumly across the net at his practice partner. Jirou wasn't slumbering anymore. Instead he was doing a strange parody of the River Dance without the tapping.

"Muffle…muffle…SUGOI!" Every now and again, a single cry would get the better of Jirou and escape into the cool afternoon air.

"Muffle…muffle…MARUI!" Marui himself sighed and hit the ball back lightly to the now obviously hyper boy across the net.

"Muffle…muffle…SUGE!" Jirou bounced forward to intercept the ball.

Marui wanted the training to end. Now.

* * *

Yanagi glared, still closed eye, at Kabaji. "Kabaji, I see that we're going to be practice partners for today."

"Usu."

"Then…" Mustering all of his dignity, which wasn't a jolly lot, Yanagi drew himself up to his full height, positively miniscule compared to Kabaji, and proceeded to state in his most imperious tone, "Do something intelligent!"

Kabaji blinked, but that was about it.

A slightly irritated sounding voice drawled from the bench where Atobe and Yukimura decided to live, "Hmm… Yanagi, I hate to tell you this, but ore-sama has had that talking tone copyrighted. Unless you want a law suit, I suggest you abandon it immediately."

Yanagi just might have opened his eyes a fraction. Maybe. Or it was just an optical illusion. Anyway, he fell silent and into thought once more. A bright idea entered his head. Atobe had only said /talking tone/. There had been nothing mentioned about /singing imperiously/. A smile, which brought shame on dorky smiles everywhere, appeared on his face. The Rikkai data master drew in a deep breath and sung.

* * *

"What is that hideous screeching?"

Everyone stopped what they were doing to cover their ears to protect themselves from the onslaught of audible torture.

"Is this the newest weapon invented to man?" Gakuto asked Oshitari curiously. They were two of the four who were running laps, quite a distance away from the actual courts. Hiyoshi and Jackal made up the remaining two.

The two of them had been given laps for 'attempting to cause more havoc'. Hiyoshi was given laps for 'stalking Kirihara' who apparently had developed a sudden sixth sense where Hyoutei players were concerned. As for Jackal… Well, Jackal appeared to be running for the sake of running.

The Hyoutei tensai looked completely serious. "The audio bomb. I've heard about it. Supposedly, it has more impact than an atomic one. They've dubbed it 'the deadliest bomb of this century. Consists of screeching fit for a banshee."

"Ah…"

* * *

Hiyoshi muttered under his breath. Random things such as 'pretty', 'roommate' and of course, 'gekokujou' could have been heard if you were close enough.

The 'roommate' was obvious Sanada. The 'gekokujou' had to be about Atobe. The 'pretty'? Well… Hiyoshi could have just been muttering about those pretty flowers scattered about the outside of the court. But in Hiyoshi-land, anything goes.

* * *

Jackal eyed Hiyoshi who was running slightly ahead of him still muttering full speed. A slow smile spread across the Rikkai boy's face as he casually noted a chance for more mayhem. Stretching out his long legs, Jackal overtook the Hyoutei second year with ease and proceeded to distance himself from Hiyoshi.

An outraged sound came from behind as Hiyoshi made up for his daydreaming and steamrolled Jackal. Or at least he tried to.

Jackal waited until the last moment and then stepped to one side. Off balance and going too fast, Hiyoshi tripped over the foot that Jackal had 'accidentally' left sticking out and went sprawling in the dust.

Pleased, the Rikkai defense master surveyed his handiwork and nodded. Whistling a cheerful tune, Jackal continued on his way with occasional snatches of song floating back to a fuming Hiyoshi sitting on the ground.

"Gekokujou daze… Tsu…bu…se…"

Hiyoshi decided that Jackal had to move up one space on Shishido's to-kill-list. And tonight was going to be the best time to do it. An evil smile overtook the normally 'normal' second year's face. Oh… revenge would feel so sweet.

* * *

Sanada glared. Then he scowled. Finally he glared and scowled together. Then…

Akaya's attention span ran out at that point as he yawned and lobbed the ball back at his fukubuchou.

"Ne, ne Sanada fukubuchou? Why are we stuck out here doing all of these /boring/ training exercises?" He whined and pouted. Akaya didn't like being confined to doing these… /childish/ things. He wanted to be playing a game, preferably in a sandbox, with his beloved buchou.

It was then that a screech sounded. And sounded again. And didn't stop.

Sanada caught the tennis ball and propped his racquet back against his shoulder. His expression was of bewilderment. Or close to it as his scowl would allow. "What /is/ that?"

Akaya used the chance to flop down onto the court and drop his racquet. Neither he nor Sanada seemed particularly bothered by the noise. Akaya because he had a high tolerance and Sanada because… well… Let's just say that Sanada in song was significantly less pleasant.

A sentence of the weirdly pitched screaming became audible to Kirihara.

To everyone close by and not previously exposed to this type of racket it sounded something like: "Shriek… Screeeeeech! Scream, scream… Screet, screep, YODA!"

To the entire Rikkai Dai team it was just noise.

However, to Kirihara, Sanada and most likely Yukimura, it went something along the lines of this: "Kabaji… I insist! That you start… Getting some ATTITUDE!"

"Oh. It's Yanagi-senpai…" The junior ace blinked and lay down comfortably on the court.

Sanada leveled another glare, this time in Akaya's direction instead of Atobe's. "I /knew/ that." The normally stoic fukubuchou barely stopped a sniff of disdain in time. As if anyone could mistake that 'singing' for anything else.

Akaya turned to him with a sly expression, "Say, Fukubuchou… Do you sound any better?"

Sanada knew better than to answer to that. He stared forwards with no expression at all.

Atobe, who sat only a couple of meters away on the bench directly behind Sanada and Akaya's court, watched with interest. He posed a question to the ever helpful Yukimura, "Has Sanada been taking lessons?"

Yukimura's pleased smile was wide, "Of course. From Tezuka no less."

Atobe nodded and then winced when the screeching became slightly unbearable. "Do you have /any/ decent sounding singers in your team?"

Quickly, as if he didn't want to offend, Atobe added, "Of course, it's just as a precaution. My team has sensitive hearing. Sometimes, a slight warning before hand…" Trailing off, Atobe and Yukimura exchanged a loaded look.

Yukimura smiled, looking away and a small glint of evilness showed.

Therefore, it was no accident that Atobe heard Yukimura's next murmured words, "When in the showers, it's not Renji who you need to look out for."

"Oh?"

"It's Sanada."

"Oh."

* * *

XD To those of you who picked up the musical reference, I couldn't help but put that in. Don't get me wrong… I think that Hiyoshi's 'Gekokujou' song is one of the best! It rocks. And completely describes him to a T. It's just so… HIM.

To those of you who haven't watched the musicals… What are you waiting for? oO; It's totally like the best thing since Tenipuri. Hahaha. Seriously. It's got everything my story has except for that it just proves that some relationships are /canon/!

-coughsilverpaircough-

Anyway. I'm really sorry about the overtly long hiatus that I've been on. I've decided to take one every thirteen chapters. So it means that this is going to be a fairly long fic. I'm currently looking at least 45 chapters to cover everything I need.

Comments, reviews and any suggestions or requests are more than welcome! Who knows… You just might see them appear somewhere in this fic. Or others. XD


	15. Medications and Dinner

**Training Camp… Or Not**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the Prince of Tennis cast. XD. I wish I did though... But I do own the storyline from here on!

**Chapter summary: **Practice is over. For now. Yagyuu casts his die and the game is ready to go. Yukimura reveals his entire team's secrets. And I bet you never could guess. Right? Anyway, dinner has started and various things are revealed about several boys. Hey! Kabaji… You really can think?

**Warnings: **Crack, OOC and shounen ai.

**A/N: **Yah!!! I'm back again with a chapter. Once a week like I promised! Now stop reading this and go enjoy!! XD

For **Sandy**.

* * *

**Chapter Fifteen: Medications and Dinner**

They were still in the land of the living.

That was the first thought from both teams as they reentered the mansion after the practice session.

Atobe and Yukimura entered after they did, making sure everyone was inside. With a click of Atobe's fingers, the entire Hyoutei team fell to silence. The entire Rikkai team continued chattering away.

With his eyebrow twitching slightly and a forced smile pasted on his face, Atobe turned to Yukimura, who was /still/ smiling. "Would you?"

"No problems." Yukimura and Atobe didn't even need to exchange an entire sentence to understand what the other wanted. Sanada twitched this time round.

The blue haired buchou took half a step forward and continued to smile in a genial manner. The entire Rikkai team immediately stopped their activities and gazed up at their captain adoringly.

Atobe and the Hyoutei team thought it was completely insane.

* * *

Yagyuu slipped into the kitchen silently. The maids and footmen who were working diligently on creating dinner looked highly startled. 

One maid, the only one brave enough to approach the sinisterly grinning Rikkai player, asked politely, "Did you need something, sir?"

The Gentleman's gentlemanly instincts reared their head and he bowed to her, "It's just a little thing. My captain sent me down to give this little bottle of seasoning to you." Leaning in closer, Yagyuu's voice dropped to a companionable whisper, "It's our team's favorite flavor. If you put that into a dish, they're guaranteed to eat it."

Straightening, he added with a straight face, "Now, we don't want to offend Atobe do we?"

"Ah." Relaxing slightly, the maid took the proffered bottle. Everyone had been instructed by Atobe to follow any request by the other captain during the other team's stay. "Am I to place this in everyone's meal?"

Yagyuu offered a charming smile, you know, the type that crocodiles give before they eat you. "It's better not to do that… I'm not sure if there's enough for every dish." He pushed his reflective lenses higher up on his nose and added, "You must be certain to place it in the meat dishes. It really brings out the flavor and our team is carnivorous."

With another polite bow, the Gentleman of Rikkai left the kitchen. He didn't let the smirk out until he reached his room. Oh… Revenge will feel so sweet.

* * *

Atobe raised an eyebrow as his maid handed him an empty bottle and whispered a message into his ear. Both he and Yukimura were just about ready to head downstairs to dinner. 

Both teams had been informed that all meals were to be informal. Atobe had wanted it to be at least semi-formal, but after a discreet phone call to Yukimura before the actual camp, he had decided otherwise. The thought of having to provide bibs was enough to suppress the idea entirely.

He stood and brushed some lint off his shirt. "Oh? And when was this?" The question was directed to her.

The maid bowed her head in respect, "When they were still preparing, Keigo-bocchama."

"Ah. You may go." With a wave of his hand, Atobe dismissed the girl. She bowed again, formally and then left the room.

"Is there a problem?" Yukimura still hadn't gotten rid of his smile. Atobe was starting to feel a little freaked out. Not that he'd ever admit to doing so of course.

"No. It's just that I suggest we avoid the meat dishes tonight. Apparently, your Gentleman has taken some drastic steps to… uh… teach your team a lesson."

Yukimura sighed. "Oh dear. I hope I brought some extra in case he used it all."

Atobe blinked at those words and examined the small bottle carefully. Hesitantly, he asked, "Does Yagyuu carry around tranquilizers normally?"

The answer he received was offhand and cheerful, "Of course. How do you think he manages to stay so calm usually? Hiroshi carries around enough of the stuff to overdose both our teams."

A slight dimming of Yukimura's smile was the only outward sign of any internal stress/concern/interruption to his fun. "I do hope he didn't give it all away. I'd better check to see if I have enough to suppress him for the duration of this camp."

Atobe edged away a little as his preservation instincts kicked in. A question wandered into his mind. //If Sanada takes aspirin and Yagyuu takes tranquilizers… What does /Yukimura/ take to keep on top of this crowd//

Yukimura didn't seem to notice the other captain's slight withdrawal from the conversation. Instead, he was busy rummaging through his cupboard. Atobe inched forward a little as the blue-haired boy emptied half his drawer, item by item, onto his bedspread. He listed each as he withdrew it from his drawer.

Thump. "Aspirin for Sanada."

Thump. "Sedatives for Niou, Marui and Akaya." "

Thump. "ADHD medications for Marui and Akaya."

Thump. Thump. "Antipsychotics for Jackal…"

Thump. "Ah! Here are the tranquilizers for Yagyuu. Now let me see what else we have here…"

Atobe carefully blocked out the remainder of Yukimura's cheerful monologue at that point and made a mental note to never, ever eat or drink anything the Rikkai team offered him without a taste tester. Or to steal their medications.

* * *

Yagyuu sat calmly, as he usually was, at the dinner table. To say he was pleased was probably the understatement of the year. He was ecstatic. His eyes traveled from one end of the table to the other, lingering slightly on his doubles partner. The evil smirk appeared. 

Both teams, minus their captains, were seated and currently eating dinner. Yukimura and Atobe had sent their apologies and a note. In it, they declared that they were too /enthralled/ with each other's company to come down to dinner just yet. Sanada had almost fainted at that and was now sulking in a corner of the room.

Niou took several big bites of his barbequed beef and smiled slyly in Choutarou's direction. He had managed to get himself seated right next to the silver-haired second year, much to Shishido's displeasure. The blue capped boy stabbed a knife into his beef with the ferocity of well… Shishido stabbing Niou.

Well aware of the animosity directed towards him, Niou took another forkful of his dinner. This time, however, instead of directing it into his own mouth, he raised it to Choutarou's lips. Choutarou's eyes grew wide and his flush flared into existence again.

"Niou… Niou-san!" Was all he managed to squeak out as he tried to avoid the incoming forkful.

"Say 'Ah' Chouta-kun. And what did I say about just calling me Niou?" The Trickster spoke with as much fluttering of eyelashes as he could get away with.

However, to Choutarou's relief and Niou's disappointment, another mouth took the forkful.

"Ew!" Niou jerked his fork out of the offending mouth and dropped it on his napkin.

On the receiving end of the fork, Shishido looked just as disgusted. That look went away when Choutarou turned to him with an expression of gratitude. "Thank you Shishido-senpai. I…"

"There's no need to say anymore Choutarou. You know that for you, I'd do anything."

Or that's what Shishido wanted to say. However, he ended up muttering, "No problem." And turned away with some slight color to his cheeks.

"Ew!" Niou exclaimed again, loudly, and turned to an uninterested Jackal sitting on his other side. "EW!"

Looking down at his contaminated fork, the Trickster sighed and resigned himself to missing the remainder of his dinner. An evil, evil look crossed his face when no one else watched. Now all he had to do was get Choutarou guilty enough to feed him…

* * *

Kabaji had never felt the urge to hit something. Not until now. Currently, he felt like hitting Yanagi, Atobe and Yukimura. And not necessarily in that order. 

The data master was /still/ humming under his breath. Kabaji could have sworn that Renji was composing an entire song dedicated to his data. A shudder was suppressed. Hopefully, the day will never come when it would be performed. Or else Kabaji wouldn't be held responsible for his actions.

Atobe he wanted to have a shot at because it was all his idea to pair the stupid, tone deaf Master with him. Well… Atobe could stuff that idea where the sun don't shine. Especially if Renji didn't stop ordering him around with sung directions. The voice that boy had was just hideous.

And Yukimura. Oh, Kabaji really wanted to have a go at the Rikkai captain most of all. He couldn't understand, in his simplemindedness, why the buchou of Rikkai hadn't had Renji assassinated yet. The Master was obviously a threat to mankind as they knew it.

Oh. Hold that thought. Kabaji wasn't sure why the entire Rikkai team hadn't been snipered or mutilated by those demons they summoned yet.

Oh. Scratch that last thought too. Maybe the real Rikkai team had long been killed and replaced by demons from the lower realm. It sure would explain the singing. And the dancing too.

* * *

Akaya poked at his food. He didn't feel like eating. Especially not with that evil, murdering, blue-haired villain sitting right next to him. The only thing keeping him from running away was Yagyuu significantly pleased smirk on the other side of the table, right next to the only other empty seat. 

Oh, having one's fukubuchou as a dead weight on your lap was another pro for staying in the same position.

But seriously, Akaya hadn't seen that look on Yagyuu's face since the Gentleman had punched Niou out for stealing his golf clubs and using them in last year's annual school production as walking sticks. He prayed that Yagyuu hadn't forgotten his medicine again. It was all he could do from whimpering as Oshitari leaned towards him again.

"Say… Is Sanada prone to bouts of narcolepsy?" The blue-haired tensai had his eyes wide open as he prodded Sanada with his fork gently.

The vice captain had taken only two bites of his dinner before slumping into sleep right into Akaya's arms.

"He fainted." The clearly unhappy second year retorted.

"Oh really?" Oshitari's smirk widened just that little bit.

"Yes." Akaya dared the tensai to challenge his statement. He had decided that facing the devil was better than running. At least when you faced him you could at least stomp on his toes before he sent you to oblivion.

A snore interrupted their staring competition.

Akaya cringed again as his courage deserted him. Oshitari let out another smirk. Just that little bit more evil than his last, "Say… Since when did a fainter snore?"

Another smile. "Gakuto, we should be getting this down. Perfect blackmail material right here. Can't you see the school newspaper headlines? 'Rikkai Vice Captain Molests Four Teammates in One Day'."

Gakuto was less cautious than his double's partner. He snorted at the turn the conversation had taken and rammed his chopsticks right into the Rikkai vice's stomach.

"Oomph!" A gasp escaped Sanada's mouth and he quickly sat upright, directing a glare in Gakuto's direction.

Jackal looked at his vice captain with an innocent look, or as innocent one can look with a forkful of obviously stolen barbeque meat in his mouth. "I see you're back with us, fukubuchou."

Sanada didn't bother with a glare in Jackal's direction. He turned his glare onto Oshitari. "I did /not/ molest anyone."

The snicker that accompanied the answer was filled with glee, "Then tell that to Kirihara-kun. I think you're currently sitting on him."

"Sanada-fukubuchou… Please… Too heavy…" Akaya gasped from beneath the glowering vice captain.

Yukimura and Atobe decided to make their grand appearance. They took in the scene without a blink.

Jirou was draped over Marui like a wrap. Kabaji was sitting stoically with a deviously grinning Renji next to him. Sanada and Oshitari were in the midst of a heated argument. Gakuto was snickering while Akaya cowered from under Sanada where he was still pinned.

Hiyoshi was gazing at Akaya thoughtfully and sending Jackal a glare every now and again. Shishido had his hand on Choutarou's, stopping him from raising a fork. Niou was sitting back with an amused expression.

Yagyuu looked the most comfortable of them all, gazing around the table like a benevolent grandfather, albeit an evil, poisoning and tranquilizer taking one. Oh… Jackal looked the happiest of the lot, devouring what looked like Sanada's dinner with huge bites.

He waved as he saw the captains.

Sanada froze as he noticed Akaya struggling from underneath him. Slowly, he stood up and moved to another chair.

Yukimura shook his head sadly, "I wish that you would stop molesting our second year Genichirou. Wait till you're in your rooms at least."

Atobe was more than satisfied with the landed fish impersonation that Sanada gave.

//HA! That'll teach you to think that ore-sama would cuddle the likes of /you// He smirked inwardly.

Open.

Close.

Open.

Close.

Open.

Whisper. "Yukimura…"

* * *

XD Whee! I hope I'm not too late! Well... What can I say? -cough nothing cough- Ahem... So... You know what I want by now... 

REVIEWS! YES! GIMME REVIEWS! XD

Don't worry. I'm on crack. I mean... PoT... P


	16. Just Before Bed

**Training Camp… Or Not**

**Disclaimer:** I don't own the Prince of Tennis cast. XD. I wish I did though... But I do own the storyline from here on!

**Chapter summary: **Marui is WHAT? Yukimura and Atobe break some news to their respective teams. Sanada and the Silver Pair almost have a melt down. Oh… And apparently Atobe and Yukimura /aren't/ their teams' parents. Whatever that means.

**Warnings: **Crack, OOC and shounen ai.

**A/N:** -does song and dance- Whee!!! I'm happy! Off to Phillip Island for a holiday weekend with some friends tomorrow. But that's neither here nor there…

I hope you enjoy this chapter!!!

If you haven't yet, -cough- I'm going to self promote again -cough- XD, go read the latest chapter of my newest creation… **Forfeits and Wagers**. It's kinda good. XD;

Anyhow… ENJOY!

**For Sandy.**

* * *

**Chapter Sixteen: Just Before Bed**

Finally… It was over.

Dinner at least.

Marui had suffered enough torture today to last a lifetime. Strengthening his resolve, the red-haired, bubble blowing and self-proclaimed tensai of Rikkai walked towards his captain as a condemned man would walk towards the gallows. Taking a quick look around the hallway, Marui made sure that this conversation wouldn't be overheard.

Shuffle, shuffle.

"Erm… Buchou?"

Smile, smile.

"What is it Bunta?"

Shuffle, shuffle some more.

"Can I swap rooms with you?"

Smile, smile some more.

"Why?"

Marui did an inner once over. //Scuff toe against floorboards. Check. Take deep breath. Check. Look embarrassed. Check. Remember determination to not room with Jirou. CHECK//

"Because…"

Yukimura did an inner once over too. //Smile. Check. Keep smiling. Check. Continue smiling despite whatever excuse Bunta comes up with to escape from rooming with Akutagawa. Check. Do /not/ laugh or giggle. Check. //

"Because?" Yukimura questioned gently with his ever saint like smile firmly in place.

Marui took in a deep breath and rushed though his explanation. If anyone came and overheard him, he'd be the butt of countless jokes to come. "BecauseI'vegotacrushonAtobeandIneedtoseducehim."

"Tonight," he added quickly, in case Yukimura thought he wasn't desperate enough.

The blue-haired buchou's smile never faded. In fact, he was hard pressed to not to laugh in Bunta's face. He got it under control just in time to see Sanada appear from behind and give Bunta the most incredulous look ever.

"YOU WHAT?" It was rare to hear Sanada's voice go up so high. Yukimura's smile turned sly. Why was /Sanada/ so affected by that pronouncement?

"EEK!" Marui's violet eyes widened at Sanada's obvious presence and he scampered backwards. Right into Atobe himself.

"Hmm? What have we here now?" Atobe grabbed Marui by the arm and smiled down at him. Then he winked. Obviously Sanada wasn't the only one who had overheard the previous conversation.

Marui almost fainted. Yukimura made a sound that sounded suspiciously like a snort. Except for it wasn't and couldn't be. Saints didn't snort. Neither did demons.

Sanada aimed a glare at both Atobe and Marui's direction. It was hard to tell who exactly he was glaring at. "We have a team meeting. NOW!" The command, however, was definitely barked at Marui.

The red-haired tensai straightened and almost flew out of the room.

Atobe's laugh rang out, "I don't think he knows where the meeting is." His eyes met Yukimura's and they shared a knowing look.

"I guess that's why you're here, Atobe."

"Right you are." Running a hand through his already perfect hair, Atobe handed over a sheet of neatly folded paper to the Rikkai captain. "You can have the second floor library. My team is up in the third floor one. Is that alright?"

"That would be fine."

Another moment was spent with the two captains in obvious unspoken harmony. Sanada shuffled and looked away, uncomfortable.

Noticing his discomfort, Yukimura's smile turned ever more genial as he tugged Sanada out of the room and towards the stairs. "I'll see you tonight, Atobe."

Atobe merely nodded but gave the Rikkai vice an interested look before the latter was swept out of his gracious presence by Yukimura.

It was getting more fun by the hour.

* * *

Atobe sauntered into the third floor library with a look of amusement. The Hyoutei team froze and then slowly took several steps backwards, away from their captain. The last time they had seen Atobe so full of mirth… All shuddered. 

It was a horror to remember and so they preferred not to.

"There are a few things we need to address since we have guests…" These were the first words that Atobe managed with his smirk still firmly in place.

"Erm. Ok?" His entire team blinked at him and watched every action warily, in case Atobe decided to break out in song and dance as Renji had done, continuously after dinner. It had been fairly disturbing.

Atobe settled himself on a chair and made himself comfortable. "Firstly… Curfew is 11 pm tonight and every night thereafter, for the entire duration of this camp."

A few mutters at this.

"Secondly… Wake up will be at 6 am tomorrow morning and every morning after. No exceptions. If you are not awake… Well…" Here Atobe paused for maximum effect and his smirk changed into a grin.

The entire Hyoutei team fought the urge to dive under the table. For one thing, it was closer to Atobe than they were currently. For another, Choutarou already appeared to be beneath it. Shishido was hovering protectively around it. Between the Silver Pair, there really wasn't much space left. So, the remainder of the team chose to huddle in a little corner, as far away as possible from their obviously maniacal captain.

They shared a thought, in harmony for once//Now who's forgotten their medications//

Atobe, happily oblivious to his team's thought processes for once, crossed his legs and leaned back. "Third. Yukimura and I have had a little talk earlier. We've decided that there will be severe punishments handed out for players who are found in beds other than their own. Yes that goes for you as well…" Atobe told Shishido before he even opened his mouth.

Shishido scowled and pulled Choutarou out from under the table. Choutarou looked distressed.

"What happens if there's a storm?" Shishido glared at Atobe and dared him to answer.

Atobe waved a hand in an offhand manner, "He can go find Niou or something." It was obvious that Atobe couldn't care less.

"Niou?!" The blue-capped boy's voice choked on that name and his face turned even more sour. Even Choutarou looked a bit unhappy with that.

The taller boy leaned over and tugged on Shishido's cap gently, "I'll be alright Shishido-san. I've still got teddy!Shishido…" The younger boy was diligently fighting not to cry at the thought of being separated from his darling senpai for even a night.

Shishido looked despairingly at his kouhai but couldn't do anything to comfort him.

The remainder of the team had already become bored with the show and had long since turned their attention back to Atobe.

"Now… Fourth point… What is it Gakuto?" Atobe snapped a little… well… snappishly, at Gakuto who was bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet. Not that it was easy to tell… Honestly, if the Hyoutei boys weren't so used to him, they would have thought he was sitting down. On the floor.

"Atobe? You said that you're not allowed to sleep in other people's beds other than your own…"

"Yes! How many times does ore-sama need to tell you that before you get it?" Atobe resisted the urge to roll his eyes and settled for a long suffering sigh instead.

Gakuto decided that he didn't have a good enough view of his captain and promptly scaled up Oshitari, riding comfortably on the tensai's shoulders. Oshitari looked slightly bothered but didn't protest. "But then you said that Choutarou could take refuge in Niou's bed… Doesn't that contradict what you just stated as your third point?"

The entire team fell to silence and just stared at the red-head. Hiyoshi was the first to break the silence, "Say, Mukahi-senpai? I never knew you had a brain…"

Gakuto let out a shriek in indignation and jumped Hiyoshi. The poor second year got flattened. "Ow! Please… Mukahi-senpai? Get off me please… Oshitari-senpai is looking at me very evilly now. I'm scared…"

Gakuto climbed off and snuggled back into Oshitari's side. Oshitari leveled one last glare at the hapless second year before Atobe demanded their entire attention again.

"Well… We decided that what you do in your own rooms is your own business. We won't question you… You won't question us. Get it?" Atobe leaned back once more and closed his eyes. "Now… Onto the fourth point. Whatever happens in your room stays there. Neither I nor Yukimura want to hear about it. Whatever it is, sort it out amongst yourselves. We are /not/ your parents. We honestly couldn't care less about who tried to molest whom during bedtime. However, if that kind of behavior goes on during practice… There are all types of punishments that could come your way."

At that, the Hyoutei team all nodded in sync like the good boys they all were.

Not.

Internally, they all began to plot the various downfalls of their various nemeses.

* * *

"Now…" Yukimura smiled genially at everyone in the room. 

It was hard to find a time that he wasn't smiling genially at something in existence. Be that his racquet or the old granny who lived down the road. If it could be smiled at, Yukimura had smiled at it before. It may be noted that the previously mentioned granny had to be hospitalized and treated for extreme trauma after being smiled at. But no one would say anything. Will they?

His team hung onto his every word as if it were the teachings of Buddha. Actually, Buddha himself probably hung onto every word the Rikkai buchou uttered. But that's not the point.

Yukimura pulled out the sheet of paper that Atobe had given to him before, just outside the dining room, "Now… Atobe and I have talked things over and…"

Sanada made a faint whimpering sound again. He didn't like the way the conversation was headed.

The blue-haired buchou patted his vice on the head like a wayward kitten. "There, there Genichirou. It's nothing like that. We're not eloping. Yet." He paused thoughtfully, as if he were actually considering it, "Well… Not until our first child is born. But that's not the topic of conversation for today…"

Sanada choked and managed not to faint this time. It was a close call though. Yanagi uttered an indecipherable mumble and wriggled as if he wanted to get out.

Jackal smiled, positively beamed his approval, and watched his captain with a happy expression. Niou and Yagyuu were watching the room with the pleased look of a couple of fed tigers in a room full of meat. Not hungry but interested in something to play with. Oh the fun.

Akaya and Bunta were sitting right next to each other, in the darkest corner they could find. Whimpers and slight shaking came from both of them every now and again. Obviously classic symptoms of stress and not a little shock.

Yanagi wriggled a little more and more of that muffled mutter could be heard floating around the room.

Yukimura directed his nicest smile towards the data master. "Renji… Did you need a hand?"

Niou and Sanada had taken it on themselves to bind and gag the Master when they entered the room. The singing had been getting a little too much to take. Yukimura hadn't protested. Yagyuu held a suspicion it was because Renji had tried to sing him tomorrow's predicted training schedule. Renji was currently lying on his side in another corner, opposite the one that Akaya and Marui inhabited. He just looked like he was dying to get to a pen.

Muffle. Muffle.

"Ok…" Yukimura turned away, obviously having interpreted that bit of muffling. "Now… You are to all, one, go to sleep at eleven tonight. Two, wake up at six tomorrow morning. Three, stay in your own beds tonight. Four, keep everything that goes on in your rooms to yourself."

He looked around genially, "Now isn't that simple? Let us say it together. Repeat after me…"

The Rikkai team obediently followed his lead.

Just like innocent lambs to the slaughter.

* * *

So? XD 

Need I say anything more? Heh.

Please review!!! I need them. Desperately!

Rants, raves and anything you want to see happen? Leave it in the review, PM or email me. I won't bite you. I promise! XD


	17. Silver and Platinum Moments

**Training Camp… Or Not**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the Prince of Tennis cast. XD. I wish I did though... But I do own the storyline from here on!

**Chapter summary: **Boys… What can you do? Mainly stars the Platinum Pair and Silver Pair with brief cameos by Sanada, Jackal and Gakuto. OMG!! Finally some Silver Pair love and fluff… Pity Niou's in the midst of it. Again. Hold on… Yagyuu? Please don't do anything rash. You might actually regret it… Y'know… Insanity just took on a new meaning.

**Warnings: **Crack, OOC and shounen ai.

**A/N: **I honestly never expected to get this far. And I'm still going!!! Seventeen chapters now! Two hundred reviews! And 9000+ hits. Very proud of it I am too! This is the first time I've stuck with something so long and I've got everyone who reads, everyone who reads and reviews and just basically everyone who's supported me to thank!!

No idea why I chose this chapter to become all overwhelmed with emotion… But I did. XD

So THANK YOU VERY MUCH to everyone who's PMed or emailed or left a review or even just read it. Thank you ever so much for the support. I'll hope you continue it as I try and finish this! You guys are LOVE!

Erm... If any of you are wondering why this is up a day earlier than **Forfeits and Wagers**... Erm... Don't. Just... Refer to **A/N** at the end. And /don't/ laugh.

For **Sandy**.

* * *

**Chapter Seventeen: Silver and Platinum Moments**

Yagyuu gave his doubles partner a cursory glance. His entire attention was focused on the quite… amusing sight of their resident data master being manhandled from the library, which was also now formally their debriefing room.

Niou's entire focus was also on Yanagi, who was currently being bundled out of the room by Jackal. The defense master faltered for a moment as Renji overbalanced and tipped forward to land flat on his face.

"Oops!" Jackal jumped over the prone form of their Master and proceeded to drag him, by the ankles, up the staircase.

Yagyuu cleared his throat, "Jackal?"

His bald haired teammate turned around, "Hmm? Something the matter Yagyuu?"

The Gentleman shoved his glasses more firmly onto the bridge of his nose and shook his head gently. "Of course not!" Here Yagyuu paused as if considering something of the utmost importance, however, it mustn't have been that important since he merely shook his head.

Jackal nodded in reply and turned back to his task at hand.

"Oomph! Oomph!" Yanagi made a faint 'oomphing' sound every time his head hit a stair.

Niou smirked and leaned carefully on his partner, "You really aren't going to say it?"

A faint trace of a smile could be seen on Yagyuu's face. "Why… And let myself have all the fun?" He gave the Trickster a mock hurt look, "How could you think such a thing of me?"

A grin from the silver-haired boy, "True."

"Yo Jackal!" Niou's voice carried clearly, but Jackal was only halfway up the stairs anyway.

"Hmm?" Yanagi's head stopped bouncing around on the staircase. Yagyuu found it oddly fascinating to see the head act like a yoyo. Except that there was no string. But still…

Niou leaned casually against the banister, "Isn't Yanagi's room on /this/ floor?"

Jackal chewed on that thought for a moment before a slow smile spread. "You know? I think you just might be right…"

"Oomph! Oomph!" Poor Renji found himself dragged by his ankles /again/. This time down the stairs. Believe it or not, it actually hurt more. "OOMPH!"

Yagyuu tapped a hand against his chin thoughtfully just as Jackal just touched down from the staircase. "I do believe that you've been misinformed. I could have sworn that Yanagi shared a suite with Kabaji on the third floor."

Jackal's eyes opened wide as if they hadn't planned this from the beginning, "Oh dear! I'm afraid you're quite right Yagyuu!"

Three pairs of eyes trailed to the dazed and slightly woozy looking third year lying cross eyed on the edge of the stairs. Not that it was possible to tell about the cross eyed thing. But they all pretended anyway.

"Oh well…" With a resigned look which suspiciously resembled a smirk, Jackal dragged the Master back up the stairs.

Niou sprinted up them as well and took a firm hold on one ankle. "I'll help."

They shared a small smile and Jackal nodded approvingly, "Why not?"

Without further ado, they proceeded to 'help' Renji to his room. All in the name of friendship of course.

* * *

Sanada and Yukimura walked like two men, well boys, on a mission. One Kirihara Akaya was firmly in between them. Upright of course. 

"No! Buchou! Please! NO!" Akaya almost squealed in distress and despair.

Yukimura was smiling happily as always, almost as if he was going to enjoy the suffering and torment that rooming with Oshitari was going to bring his youngest teammate. Actually, if you thought about it, he probably was.

Sanada, however, was one unhappy fukubuchou. He had been drugged, accused of molesting his own teammates and then had been forced to bind and gag his best friend. All of this before bedtime. Honestly… He needed his beauty sleep. Erm. Well… Not if it's put like that. But really, he shouldn't take out his problems on a teammate like he currently was.

"Listen to Yukimura, Akaya!" Sanada's voice was rough and not a little frustrated.

The second year looked ever so close to tackling down his fukubuchou and making a run for it but thought the better of that. Sanada was at least 10cm taller and much, much broader. Not that he was calling his vice captain fat of course. Akaya would never do that! Well… Not to Sanada's face anyway.

And then there was Yukimura… Of course Akaya wouldn't do anything to hurt his precious captain, but puppy eyes and begging always got him what he wanted. However, when Akaya looked up into the smiling eyes of Yukimura, whatever he had wanted to say just got swallowed up again. By god, Yukimura was giving him 'the deadly but cheerful smile of doom'.

Yukimura patted Akaya's head softly, "There, there. Oshitari isn't that bad. Mukahi puts up with him everyday. So does the remainder of the Hyoutei team and you have to agree that they're alright. Right Akaya?"

Akaya bit back the response that was on the tip of his tongue. It would not help his cause any if he were to blurt out that the Hyoutei team was insane. Mayhap even more than their own team. Instead, he nodded like the good boy he was and looked at the floor, "Yes buchou."

"Good…" Yukimura pushed open the door to Akaya's shared room with Oshitari. The blue-haired tensai was sitting on his bed reading a book.

Akaya gulped as he saw the cover. He didn't know many words in English, but he knew enough to read the cover: 'Murder for Dummies'. His new found conviction in his captain and himself fled as he made another run for it.

He was dragged back kicking and screaming by a furious Sanada who only wanted to be done with the night and go to sleep in his own room. "AKAYA!"

Subdued by the sheer volume of Sanada's yell. Akaya meekly grabbed his PJs and went into the bathroom to change. Both his captain and vice captain stayed long enough to tuck him into bed before bidding him goodnight.

As soon as the two older Rikkai members were gone, Oshitari dropped his book and stretched languidly, just like a cat. Akaya watched him with an expression torn between distress and panic.

Oshitari sat down on the Rikkai player's bed and patted the younger boy's head, "There, there Akaya-kun. I don't bite you know."

The second year Rikkai ace had two choices. To run, or to fight.

Akaya, just because he was the pouty little demon he was, chose to fight.

He grabbed the lamp off his bedside table and smashed it onto Oshitari's head. Akaya grinned as he felt the lamp come into contact with something solid and splinter into fragments. The room became enveloped with darkness and silence.

As soon as the adrenaline wore off, Akaya started to panic. There was still no sound from the Hyoutei tensai. He hadn't… /killed/ Oshitari had he?!

As that thought took hold, Oshitari's voice crept slowly through the pitch black room, "Akaya-kunnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn…"

This time Akaya didn't give a damn about sounding like a girl or not. He opened his mouth wide and screamed.

* * *

_Dear Diary,_

_It seems like this camp is turning out more fun than I originally thought! I had begun to think that looking after Akaya was all that I was going to do in life, however, Buchou actually pulled me aside today in practice and told me to 'have some fun'._

_Since he actually /said/ that, I shall listen and obey. After all, our entire team lives to serve him, the o-mighty-one!_

_I started today with Hiyoshi Wakashi. The second year who is rooming with Sanada. He seemed nice and normal, so I took pity on him and just tripped him up whilst doing laps. I hope he didn't mind me stealing his song though. It's got such a catchy tune and all._

_Of course, I told buchou all about my plans and he seemed greatly amused. I am aiming to amuse myself with every Hyoutei regular before this camp is over. Yukimura did ask me to spare Atobe, since he's the captain, and I agreed. However, he also did ask me about why I thought Hiyoshi was the only normal one out of the Hyoutei regulars. He said that Ohotri appeared to be quite normal too. Ohtori... __Him? Normal? __Can you imagine that?  
_

_Never. Not while he has that psychotic drama queen named Shishido at his side. If Ohtori does decide to get rid of Shishido, I'm sure Niou would just welcome him with open arms. Then he'll become normal._

_However… A thought has just struck me. If Niou ran off with Ohtori… Then what would happen to Yagyuu?_

_Hmm… Will think on this matter a little more._

_Target for tomorrow: Akutagawa. _

_Reason: I'm quite fond of Marui… Won't do to have him so traumatized._

_I thank everyone for my blessings today,_

_Jackal._

* * *

Gakuto eyed his roommate suspiciously as the other scribbled something into a little book. However, when he approached to have a look, the Rikkai player promptly closed it and hid it away, but not before Gakuto received a smack in the head. 

"Hey! I was just looking!" The red-head pouted and rubbed his sore head. When the other boy didn't respond, Gakuto picked up his bedtime preparation things and stormed into the bathroom.

He made sure to lock the door and then sat himself in the bathtub. He was small enough to feel right at home in the ceramic tub and he had brought enough padding to sleep on and in if need be. A pleased grin spread across the acrobatic player's face. Jacket, or whatever he called himself, was not going to be using this bathroom anytime soon.

Jackal had watched in amusement as his roommate proceeded to drag his entire bed, minus the mattress, into the bathroom and lock the door behind him. Jackal wasn't too concerned. He was sure that he could borrow Marui's bathroom if need be. However…

He picked up a couple of bears that Gakuto had forgotten to take with him. A slight gleam entered his eyes.

New sacrifices! Always a good thing when you did /that/ particular ceremony…

* * *

Shishido and Choutarou sat side by side on Choutarou's bed. 

All innocently of course!

Shishido was fretting about leaving Choutarou with Niou for the night. Choutarou was fretting about not having his 'Shishido-senpai' with him tonight. He bit his lip and hugged a furry teddy wearing an exact miniature replica of the Hyoutei tennis uniform and a blue cap on backwards… Oh… don't forget that Band-Aid on its eyebrow. Of course, no one could guess the identity of that particular bear or its name. Top secret, it was.

Choutarou turned to Shishido and tried to smile, "Shishido-san… Please go back to your rooms. I know that it's against the rules for you to be here and…"

A hand over his mouth stopped Choutarou in mid sentence. His esteemed senpai was looking at him with the fullness of his gaze. "Choutarou…"

Shishido let his hand drop down to cover Choutarou's and their eyes met in a really, really Silver moment. Of course, they're /just/ friends. Honest!

The older boy leaned forward a little and Choutarou closed his eyes. Just as everything was about to go perfectly, Niou popped in.

"Hello Chouta-kun!" He practically skipped in and shoved Choutarou away from Shishido.

"Ah!" Choutarou rolled onto his side and then onto the floor. Niou, because he was off balance, landed on top of the Hyoutei second year, again.

It was almost possible to see the steam billowing out of Shishido's ears. "NIOU!" His voice was filled with clenched teeth and longing to kill.

At that point, Yagyuu walked in, obviously wondering why there were more than two voices coming out of this room. He stopped at the threshold and blinked, "Niou…-kun…?"

At the questioning tone, Niou immediately hopped back up and shook both his head and hands. "It wasn't what you think it was! I swear!"

Yagyuu's expression had already returned to its normal state. He nodded and grabbed Shishido by the arm. "Of course Niou-kun. I believe you. Fully."

A protesting Shishido was dragged out of Niou and Choutarou's room, fully against his will.

"Oh dear…" Niou stared at the door for the briefest moment before he locked it and then proceeded to jam it with everything he could find.

Choutarou looked at him funny.

Niou looked right back.

"What?" He shoved both beds right into the door, blocking it. "If you don't want to die, I suggest we sleep like this for the remainder of this camp."

Choutarou looked a bit taken aback but obeyed orders like the good boy he was. "Ok."

* * *

Shishido watched the Gentleman with slight wariness. Despite the light build, the Rikkai player was strong. He could make an unwilling Shishido move without appearing to exert much effort. That wasn't normally achievable. Especially when Choutarou was involved. 

Yagyuu didn't let go until they were nicely settled in their room. He loomed in front of Shishido's face.

He fiddled a little with his glasses before settling them more firmly on his nose. "Shishido-san…"

Shishido still wanted to back away slowly, "Erm… Yes?"

"What do you think about teaming up?"

"Huh?" Whatever he was expecting, this certainly wasn't it. Shishido stared blankly. "What?"

"Teaming up…" Yagyuu repeated patiently.

"Erm… What?"

"Teaming up."

"Erm. How about no?" Shishido tried to move sideways, just to get away from that presence right in front of his face.

//Yagyuu sure moves fast// Shishido mused to himself as he found himself shoved against a wall the very next moment.

"Let us team up Shishido-san…" Yagyuu asked again, a small smile on his face. The fact he had a fellow tennis player pinned against a wall, and it certainly wasn't for 'fun times', didn't appear to faze him at all.

"Erm… Sure?" Shishido blinked rapidly as he tried to breathe. It was getting a bit hard.

Yagyuu let him go almost immediately and even helped to brush Shishido's crinkled clothes out. "Why… You're so kind to agree to my little suggestion, Shishido-san. Do you mind if I called you Ryou?"

The small smile was still in place. "Of course, you'll be welcome to call me Hiroshi."

Shishido edged himself back so that both beds were between him and the maniac. "Erm… Sure… Why not?"

Yagyuu sat himself down on his bed and held out a hand towards the Hyoutei player, "I'm sure we'll get along fine na, Ryou-kun?"

Shishido took it gingerly and wondered if this was how it felt to be shaking hands with Death himself. "Of course… Hiroshi-kun."

The smile grew wider. "I'm glad we're buddies already."

"Erm… Sure..."

* * *

Meh! Tis done. Thank god I finished it before the day I needed to post it up! 

Whee! Thanks a lot guys!

…

…

OMG! I just realized I did a new chapter of the wrong story. -sweatdrops- Oops…

-Now goes back to write **Forfeits and Wagers**- Damme… Why am I so dumb?

Comments, ideas and feedback is much loved and welcomed!! So? What are you waiting for? XD

**Forfeits and Wagers** will be up tomorrow. Heheheh? Sorry to those who were waiting for it.

Oh! If anyone is interested (which I'm sure you all will be!) Uozumi-chan has started a picture featuring Niou/Chouta/Shishi/Yagyuu (it's in no particular order... XD) Go and have a look at it at www(.)deviantart(.)com(/)deviation(/)45913482(/) Just remove all the brackets!

That's it from me! For now! XD


	18. The Other Four

**Training Camp… Or Not**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the Prince of Tennis cast. XD. I wish I did though... But I do own the storyline from here on!

**Chapter summary: **We see what the /other half/ are doing. Oh dear… It looks like Jackal isn't the only one With Plans. And no… Yukimura and Atobe aren't curious at all. Really!

**Warnings: **Crack, OOC and shounen ai.

**A/N: **Right… Well… Nothing here. Refer to the end of chapter A/N instead. Really… Read the ones on the bottom! Something for you to do… XD

Thanks to everyone who's been reading and reviewing! You guys are LOVE!

For **Sandy**.

* * *

**Chapter Eighteen: The Other Four**

Atobe and Yukimura sat on their respective beds, reading.

The silence was almost tangible but neither appeared to be overly eager to start a conversation. Atobe because he /didn't/ want to know why he passed Niou and Jackal dragging a bound and gagged Yanagi towards his room. Really… He didn't!

And of course he /wasn't/ curious as to why he heard Kirihara pounding on his door crying for Yukimura. Yuushi really wasn't that scary.

Yukimura wasn't curious either. No really, he wasn't. He had no desire to know what Jackal had done to elicit such a high pitched squeal from his roommate. And he honestly had no interest as to why Yagyuu was seen dragging a very unwilling looking Shishido back to their room. Or why Niou had been seen with planks, hammers and nails before loud hammering came from his room.

Both of the captains stared at their books as if the intensity would burn a hole right through them and turn into a fortune telling crystal ball. Then they could actually know without asking the other.

Nope. Not curious at all.

* * *

Sanada sighed and opened the door to his shared room. He guessed he'd have it easy for the camp. So far there had been screams from two rooms and heavy tussling from another two. He had wondered briefly if he should go and investigate the crying and banging going on next door, but then Yukimura had specifically informed them to keep what happened in their room, in. 

The fukubuchou of Rikkai nodded to himself and pushed his door fully open. He didn't need to know what Akaya was up to. Probably mischief again. But he did wonder, very briefly, at how loud a voice had to be to be able to be heard from the next floor down and in the opposite wing as well.

However, he pushed that thought to the back of his mind as he focused fully on the thought of taking a quick shower before going to bed. It was going to be another hectic day tomorrow. Sanada could already feel it.

Humming silently, under his breath, to himself, Sanada picked up a change of clothes and walked towards the bathroom, of which the door was open. He spent one moment considering the lack of his roommate anywhere in the room.

He hadn't seen Hiyoshi in the bedroom and since the bathroom door was open that meant that Hiyoshi couldn't possibly be…

Sanada stopped dead at the entrance to the bathroom. Hiyoshi looked up, surprised at the presence of someone else.

Sanada turned around and walked back to his bed. He'd take his shower later. Much later. In the meantime, it was all the poor fukubuchou could do to make himself breath in and out regularly.

It was the only way he wasn't going to wonder about why Hiyoshi was trying to stab something resembling a giant plush version of Jackal full of needles whilst doing a strange dance. Or why the Hyoutei second year was wearing a bright pink nightgown with yellow ducks.

No. Sanada was not even going to go there.

* * *

Hiyoshi blinked as his roommate, Sanada/scuttled/ back into the bedroom. There was no other word to describe how the Rikkai vice moved. It was either scuttling or crab walking. Hiyoshi opted for the scuttling. 

He turned his attention back to the /evil/ that was ruining his life. First, The Evil challenged him to a race during training today. Then, The Evil tripped him up. Then, The Evil /stole/ his theme song. Hiyoshi stabbed another big needle into The Evil's giant face.

//Ha! Take that EVIL// He gloated. //I'll steal your song too! Once you get one. //

Now… To clean up the bathroom so Sanada could use it. Humming 'Gekokujou' under his breath again, Hiyoshi started picking up all the unused knitting needles. Atobe said that he wanted them back tomorrow.

* * *

Kabaji sat staring at his roommate. 

"MMPH!" Yanagi exclaimed. Loudly.

Kabaji nodded sagely, "Usu."

"MMPH!!! Mmph! Omph!" Yanagi continued, trying to wave his arms around and failing. That was probably because they were stilled tied firmly, this time to his bedpost.

Another nod from the Hyoutei boy, "Usu."

Yanagi looked pleased, or as pleased as one could look when they were bound and gagged and unable to move till someone bothered to untie them.

"Usu." Kabaji reached over and prodded Yanagi a little and started picking on the knots that tied the Rikkai boy together.

Yanagi nodded furiously, "OOMPH!!!"

A minute or so later, Renji was happily removing the electrical tape from his mouth. "Thank you, Kabaji! I could never have done it without you."

Kabaji just nodded. He wasn't really into bondage. He honestly had no idea why Niou and Jackal delivered their Master to him like that. Kabaji had even told the two he didn't like bondage. But they hadn't listened.

"Well… Let me see…" Renji's pen and notebook appeared from nowhere as he started scribbling percentages and calculations in his book again.

"Chances of brain damage by being tied up alone: 5. Chances of brain damage by being dragged by Jackal: 10. Chances of brain damage by being dragged by Niou: 30. Chances of brain damage by being dragged up and down the stairs: 75."

Renji looked up from his calculations, amazed. "Well… What do you know! The chances of becoming brain damaged increases significantly if you've been dragged up and down the stairs!" He rummaged around in his school bag for his phone, "Must inform Sadaharu about this discovery. It could change the world!"

Kabaji promptly added Niou and Jackal to /The List/.

Before he had to listen to an insane, super intelligent maniac. Now he had to listen to an insane, brain damaged one. Kabaji preferred the super intelligent one. At least that one had told him things he didn't need to know.

With a resigned expression, Kabaji settled back on his pillows and tried to drift off to sleep. It was kind of hard considering the occasional sentence that drifted his way.

"…SADAHARAU! You won't /believe/ what I've found…"

Pause pause.

"…yes. I know! It's wonderful! We must…"

More pause.

"…for you. Of course, it's vital that we do it now! Do you have…"

Another pause.

"…uh. NO! You substitute the percentage from the previous…"

Kabaji buried his head deeper into his pillows.

Yanagi was a whale.

Kabaji really wanted a harpoon.

* * *

Marui shivered and eyed his roommate the same way one would eye a hungry lion with whom you were locked in a cage with. 

Jirou looked much /too/ happy about the rules that Yukimura and Atobe had set down.

"MARUI-KUN!" The Hyoutei boy yelled, obviously forgetting about their deal from earlier. "Are you sleepy? Coz I'm not sleepy at all!"

He smiled widely at Marui who popped a bubble weakly. "Do you think we should watch the movie first or play truth or dare first?"

"Movie?" Marui ventured carefully, he wasn't sure which buttons to press to shut the other boy up yet. "We're not allowed out of our rooms right?"

Jirou bounced around the room before coming to a stop in front of what looked like a wall. "Yeah! Atobe has TVs in every room. See?"

At some unseen signal, the wall opened, revealing a flat screen TV. A really big one.

The Rikkai boy's eyes were wide open. "Woah! That is /nice/!"

Jirou took this as a signal and jumped onto Marui. "Yah!"

Just as quickly, before Marui even had a chance to protest, Jirou jumped off and started pelting him with snacks. "I've got popcorn, chips, cookies and lots of drinks. Oh… Chocolates too!"

He looked at Marui hopefully, "Are we going to watch it?"

Marui looked happy, "Of course." Internally, he was quite pleased//This can't be too bad at all//

Oh… How wrong he was. How utterly wrong.

Marui sauntered happily over to the DVD collection to pick a movie. He didn't pay any attention to Jirou who was quietly writing something in a small book.

* * *

_Dear Diary,_

_Marui-kun AGREED!! Now we're going to have the best night! Atobe-buchou was nice enough to allow me down to the kitchens to raid some snacks. I hope he doesn't mind me raiding his medications cupboard too!_

_pout Marui-kun didn't teach me /any/ of his moves today. I'm sad. But then I overheard Niou-kun talking to his double's partner, Yagyuu-kun. Niou-kun said something about 'a forfeit when someone doesn't honor an agreement' and Yagyuu-kun agreed. So that must be what the Rikkai team does._

_I think it's fair to follow the Rikkai team's rules, right? smile Yes! So… I borrowed some hair ties and clips from Shishido before at the meeting. And Atobe kindly lent me some makeup. There were some girls' clothes in our closet! I'm sure this was meant to happen._

_Don't you think that Marui-kun would look super sugoi dressed as a girl? smile I do! But when I told my team before, at the meeting, they said that Marui-kun wouldn't agree! pout But that's what the medications are for! Yep… Sleeping powder in all of the soft drinks. I'm going to have to stick with the orange juice pout But it'll be worth it!_

_Especially since Choutarou let me have his camera for the night! Oh, this is going to be /lots/ of fun!_

_Bouncy!_

_Jirou!_

* * *

Well… I'm sorry that it's a bit short. And random. But hey… It's supposed to be random. Right? 

Anyway… I would appreciate it if everyone who sends in a review for this chapter, sends in five of their top pairings (in PoT) and three different prompts in order of most wanted prompt to least. It's for a project… XD

Depending on how many people send them in by Monday 12th, I'll be using anything from one to three of your pairings.

Yes… It's something for Valentines (and it /doesn't/ have anything to do with **TCON **or **FaW**!!) But if you send your pairings and prompts in before the big V day… I'll try my best to add them in.

Erm… Yeah. Anything else? Oh… Unless lots and lots of people request a certain pairing, there'll only be one appearance of each pairing. So basically, whoever sends in their pairings and prompts first will have first dibs. That's why it's 'top five pairings' XD; But I'll try to accommodate everyone!

I think that covers it. Ok people! Go, go, go! Give me all you've got! The crackiest pairings to the most insane! I promise I won't blink. XDD


	19. The Morning After

**Training Camp… Or Not**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the Prince of Tennis cast. XD. I wish I did though... But I do own the storyline from here on!

**Chapter summary: **Nothing is going the way it's supposed to be. Akaya is scarred, scared and suffering from a strange affliction. Sanada is going insane and there's no doubt about it. Wonder how much of that is due to his teammates? Marui and Jirou make their grand entrance while Choutarou weeps his little heart out. Niou and Yagyuu make up. Kind of. Ok… They don't. But at least the Trickster tried. Right?

**Warnings: **Crack, OOC and shounen ai.

**A/N: **-looks around- I'm sorry! Really! I've been swamped by everything and this just kind of fell to the side. I'll try harder to update more often! I SWEAR! -cough- I think I'd deserve it if no one reviewed wouldn't I? -bows- Again, I'm really, really sorry for not updating earlier!

Eh… As usual, any ideas, cracky or drama-ish or anything is welcomed (I'm seriously in need of some inspiration!) As are reviews, suggestions and corrections.

For **Sandy**.

* * *

**Chapter Nineteen: The Morning After**

Akaya was asleep. And he was having quite nice dreams, considering the truly dreadful torture that Oshitari had subject him to right before he fainted. There were bunnies and golden ducks everywhere. Oh and lots of sandpits and Yukimura-buchou to play with him.

No blue haired tensai anywhere in sight.

Suddenly, a big grey cloud appeared over Akaya's pretty world and it started to rain. His world became dark and dreadful and filled with Hyoutei players.

Akaya whimpered softly.

Then the cloud went away, but Akaya was stuck somewhere else entirely.

Akaya's dream self looked around curiously. It appeared to be the dining room in Atobe's mansion. The second year Rikkai player sat quietly in his seat and wondered why there wasn't anyone else there.

He thought he heard a sound from far away. It sounded similar to a snore… But after looking around, Dream Akaya noted that there wasn't anyone sleeping. Not in this room anyway.

The big grandfather clock chimed seven times. Seven o'clock. And everything started to happen.

Poor Akaya never stood a chance. Well… his brain didn't at any rate. The poor thing was close to exploding from everything it was trying to take in.

Finally, it just gave up and Akaya woke up with a crash, having fallen out of bed. He lay unmoving for a moment as his head spun with images of strange and not so wonderful things, such as a laughing Sanada and a female version of Marui.

Akaya shuddered and shook his head to dislodge the errant thoughts. The second year Rikkai ace picked himself up and dusted himself off. It was then that he noticed the /thing/ on his bed.

It stretched and shoved its glasses firmly onto its nose. Then it opened its mouth and drawled out a greeting, "Good morning Akaya. We had a good night didn't we?"

Akaya ran screaming out of the room.

* * *

Sanada had never been a morning person, but even he couldn't ignore the sight that greeted him as he stumbled down to the dining room. 

His roommate, however, didn't even give the object of Sanada's horror a second glance. Hiyoshi merely continued on his way downstairs, not looking left or right.

After a moment, Sanada concluded that Hiyoshi probably was the smartest one of the lot and thus followed in his path.

He gave the /thing/ one more distraught look before snapping his attention forward only.

//If I pretend I don't see it, it'll go away… // He chanted to himself in his mind. Continuously.

Sanada was sure that if he told himself that enough times, he'd actually believe it.

//I don't see it… I don't see it… // He closed his eyes and walked forward, straight into Marui himself.

//ARGH! I SEE IT//

* * *

Jirou bounced and tugged at Marui. "Come on! Hurry up Marui-kun! We don't want to be late to breakfast!" 

Marui rubbed his eyes. He wasn't the most awake person in the world in the morning.

Add to that equation the amount of sleep power he inhibited last night and you have one drowsy, low sugar tensai.

He didn't notice the big grin that Jirou wore as he was tugged and dragged down to the dining room, and he definitely didn't notice the strange greeting that Yagyuu gave when he passed his megane wearing teammate on his way down to breakfast. He almost noticed when his vice-captain gave him a terrified look and sprinted down the hallway.

However, he did register the snicker of a short, red-haired acrobatics player. Namely Mukahi Gakuto.

Marui felt in his pockets for some gum and popped one into his mouth after locating a stray.

"What?" His question was directed to the red-haired Hyoutei player. "Are you jealous of my tensai-ness?"

Jirou whooped and bounced around, "Marui-kun is SUGOI!"

Gakuto snickered again before just shaking his head and moving away, "Perhaps."

The Rikkai tensai popped a bubble with Jirou cheering him on in the background. He was sure that something wasn't right, but it was still too early in the morning.

Marui sighed and continued on his way down the stairs. Everything would have to wait until he had breakfast.

Besides, he could always ask Jackal later on if he had something on his face. The looks he continued to receive were starting to freak him out.

* * *

Yagyuu shook his head and continued prodding Shishido who was walking ahead of him. "A bit faster please, Ryou." 

Really, Marui just got stranger each time Yagyuu ran into him.

Shishido whipped his head around and was about to snap a reply. His words died in his throat at the glint in Yagyuu's glasses. "Erm… Sure…"

His feet dragged as he continued on. Internally, Shishido was mourning. He had missed his daily ritual time with Choutarou!

He struck a pose, just like a tragic statue, filled with despair at what pain Choutarou must have gone through when they were so cruelly separated last night.

"Oh Chouta…"

That was all he had enough time to get out before an impatient Yagyuu 'accidentally' bumped into him.

Good thing was that Shishido had an amazing sense of balance.

Pity he was just at the very edge of the stairs leading downwards.

"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!" Shishido rolled down the stairs.

Yagyuu pushed his glasses up a little. "Oops."

If anyone didn't know better, they'd have thought that the Gentleman was completely innocent.

And then there would have been the sad little fact that they'd be wrong.

* * *

Akaya peeked around the edge of the door to the dining room. 

There were two people already in there. Neither of them had blue hair nor wore glasses. Akaya pushed the door open a little further.

The two occupants of the room looked up. Yanagi Renji raised an eyebrow, "Akaya? What are you doing?"

With those words, the Rikkai second year flung open the door and threw himself onto his senpai's lap. "YANAGI-SENPAI!"

Renji would have blinked, except that would have required him to open his eyes. "Akaya? Are you alright?"

The answer to his question was muffled by Akaya mumbling everything into his shirt, "NomuffleOshitarimufflefreakmufflekillermufflescarytensaimuffleomghetriedtokillmemuffle."

Renji petted Akaya's hair, having processed and apparently understood everything, "Oshitari? He can't be /that/ scary Akaya. He's human like the rest of us…"

"Nu uh." Akaya shook his head. "He's an immortal blood sucking monster from out of space."

"Are you sure you haven't been playing too many video games… Akaya-kun?" The slow drawl made the hair on Akaya's neck stand up.

"EEK! IT'S HIM! HELP ME YANAGI-SENPAI!" At that point, Akaya had climbed onto Renji's lap.

With a sigh, Renji dislodged him and placed his frightened teammate behind Kabaji. Oshitari gave him a very innocent look. "I didn't do anything…"

"Yes you did!" Akaya piped up, obviously feeling safer than before. His head appeared from behind the hulking Hyoutei second year.

A dramatic finger was pointed at Oshitari. "You… you… could have gotten me pregnant!"

Renji froze at this. His gaze went from Akaya to Oshitari warily. "Erm… Excuse me?"

A series of crashes from behind made everyone turn around. Sanada, who had been sitting invisibly at the table up until now was currently on the floor. He looked torn between telling Akaya off for such a lie or running off while he still had the chance to.

He decided to clean this mess up before it got any further. More woe him.

Sanada straightened.

He was the fukubuchou of the prestigious Rikkai tennis team. They had won consecutive nationals. Nothing like this should stop him. The pride of Rikkai was on the line. It didn't matter if he had to re-educate his errant second year in the birds and the bees again, it was on Rikkai /pride/.

With that thought burning in his mind, Sanada called out imperiously, "Akaya!"

The second year turned and blinked tearful eyes at him. Opening his mouth, Sanada was about to explain exactly why boys couldn't have children when a blue haired tensai decided to speak up.

Oshitari continued to smile like nothing obviously against the law of nature had been stated. "Yes I could have."

Akaya broke down in tears. "But… but… but… I don't want to be /pregnant/!" he wailed.

"PREGNANT?" Mukahi popped his head around the door. "Who is?"

Sanada opened his mouth to try again.

Akaya bet him to it, "I am!" he yelled. "Oshitari got me pregnant!"

"WHAT?!" Shishido, who was nursing a bruised head limped in and gave everyone in the dining room the most disbelieving look he could muster.

Yagyuu walked in behind him, casually aiming kicks at Shishido's rear end. He pushed his glasses up, "Really now?"

Sanada's determination still hadn't run away yet. "Akaya…"

Jackal sauntered into the room with Niou and Choutarou.

"What's going on here?" Niou asked curiously, seeing the amount of people looking either amused, distressed or otherwise with abnormal expressions on their face.

Akaya dumped himself onto the floor, "Oshitari's the father of my baby."

"Oh…" Jackal looked a bit surprised before his glance slid to Oshitari who was still smiling.

"Of course I'll take full responsibility." Oshitari grinned and winked.

Jackal smiled in a saintly way before making his way to the breakfast buffet. Niou snorted but continued to watch.

Gakuto looked thoughtful, "I thought you had to be a girl to be pregnant." He grinned, "Don't tell me that you've been a girl all this time."

Akaya threw a plate at the Hyoutei acrobatics player, "When I woke up, he was in my bed. That means I'm pregnant."

The Rikkai boy scowled, "Besides, you look more like a girl than I do!"

It was Gakuto's turn to scowl, "I DO NOT!"

"DO SO!"

"DO NOT!"

"DO SO!"

The red-haired boy turned to his doubles partner, "Yuushi… Do I look more like a girl than him?"

Oshitari didn't even have to think, "Of course."

"YUUSHI!" Gakuto grabbed the nearest thing to hand, which happened to be a serving spoon and proceeded to chase Oshitari around the room with it.

By this time, Akaya was back at Renji's side crying.

Renji sighed and explained to the sniffling Akaya why he /couldn't/ have a baby. The second year's expression cleared before darkening.

"HE LIED!" Akaya proclaimed, pointing at Oshitari.

Oshitari paid him no attention at all. His entire focus was on not getting smacked by an oversized serving spoon.

Niou cornered Choutarou while Shishido growled in frustration.

Yagyuu's look had firmly told him that if he approached either Niou or Choutarou, there'd be hell to pay later.

"Shishido-san…" Choutarou sighed whilst gazing at his senpai with a hurt look in his eyes.

Niou patted his shoulder gently, "I'm sorry Choutarou."

Choutarou's big eyes swam with tears, "He didn't even come to greet me this morning and do our morning ritual song and dance."

Niou looked slightly perturbed but continued to pat the younger boy's shoulder, "There there… I'm sure that he didn't do that on purpose."

Choutarou burst into tears and started sobbing on Niou's shoulder, "Shi…Shishido-san doesn't want me anymore… What should I do?"

Niou looked a bit panicky now. He wasn't equipped to deal with crying boys. "Umm… Well… You know…"

He gestured frantically at Yagyuu who ignored him. However, Shishido was looking very fierce. Niou turned the gesturing onto the Hyoutei boy instead.

Shishido shoved back his chair, ignoring the looks that Yagyuu was giving him. Choutarou was crying.

Shishido was going to help.

Choutarou looked up just in time to see Shishido approaching. He lunged forward, leaving Niou suddenly unbalanced and clung to the older boy. "SHISHIDO-SAN!"

"CHOUTAROU!"

That was what Shishido really felt like yelling out, but he settled for a mumbled 'Oomph' as the taller boy tackled him to the ground and started bawling again.

Niou stared at the sight and decided to let them be. Instead, he siddled up to Yagyuu, "Oh Hi-ro-shi..."

Yagyuu didn't even blink, "What is it Niou-kun?"

"Can I cry on your shoulder too?"

Yagyuu smiled and Niou thought he had him.

The bespectacled boy stood up and held out his arms.

Niou grinned internally and skipped a couple of steps forward.

Yagyuu grabbed him and twirled him around.

Niou grinned outwardly. This was just like heaven.

The Gentleman's smile darkened as he calmly let go.

"Argh!" Niou sailed across the room to land in a heap in the dessert section of the buffet.

Jackal, who had been standing close by picking up some fresh fruit blinked and sighed, "Oh dear… Bunta's not going to be happy…"

Yagyuu bowed his apologies before resuming his breakfast.

Renji stared.

Sanada scrambled for the door. Screw pride. He wanted out.

Before he could reach it however, the door swung open and Jirou bounced in, dragging Marui with him.

"Hey everyone! Look at Marui-kun! Isn't he super sugoi?"

Sanada decided it was a good time to pass out.

Akaya stared before whimpering. "W…What happened to you Marui-senpai?"

Jackal looked surprised, "Say… That really kind of suits you Bunta."

Niou and Yagyuu were preoccupied in a silent cold war and neither bothered to comment.

Renji was jotting down data again.

Kabaji blinked but otherwise there was no change in his expression.

Oshitari and Gakuto paused in their cat and mouse game. Gakuto's mouth fell open. "HEY! That's…"

Oshitari put a hand under his own chin and surveyed the Rikkai tensai thoughtfully, "Gakuto, isn't that the outfit you wore last time we had a cross dressing party?"

Jirou rubbed his head sheepishly, "I'm sorry guys. But I thought it would look super cool on Marui-kun too!"

Marui blinked at everyone sleepily before nudging Sanada with a shoe, "Is fukubuchou alright?"

His gaze was caught by the pink frilliness that covered his lower half.

"Wha…?"

Jirou prodded him towards a mirror. Atobe had at least one full length one in every room. "Look! Isn't it super awesome?"

Marui stared at his reflection.

And stared.

And stared.

Niou took the chance to break his gaze away from Yagyuu and give Marui a surprised look. "Hey Bunta… You should wear lace more often."

Marui fainted theatrically into Jirou's arms.

Sanada appeared to come to himself. At least until he began laughing hysterically.

Renji's pen flew over his pages, "Ii data..."

"Fukubuchou's finally lost it…" One voice could be heard whispering to another.

Two sets of footsteps sounded in the hallway and two figures appeared.

Atobe and Yukimura arrived with big beaming smiles on their faces, "What have we missed?"

Hiyoshi followed after the two captains warily. He eyed the room apprehensively.

"What the…!?"

That really summed up everything nicely.

* * *

Argh… I know I don't deserve reviews… But… -puppy dog eyes- Please? 


	20. Another Day on the Courts

**Training Camp… Or Not**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own the Prince of Tennis cast. XD. I wish I did though... But I do own the storyline now!

**Chapter summary: **Things start snowballing. Shishido and Choutarou's friendship is tested to the limits when one goes missing. -gaspu- What's the Silver Pair without the other? Meanwhile, the wondering intensifies over whether Yagyuu is more evil than Niou.

**Warnings: **Crack, OOC and shounen ai.

**A/N: **Eh… I think I got this chapter out in good time! -peace sign- It's been not that long. Hehehehe…? Anyway, thank you to everyone who continued to encourage me last chapter by reviewing. Even though I really didn't deserve it.

I hope you all enjoy!

For **Sandy**.

* * *

**Chapter Twenty: Another Day on the Courts**

Everything settled down a little during breakfast, since both captains had arrived.

Choutarou had stopped crying and now hung off Shishido happily. If you watched them carefully enough, you might see Choutarou feeding Shishido a piece of toast or a bit of bacon every now and again.

However, no one wanted to watch. It was scarring enough just to sit at the same table as them with the immense happy vibes floating around, so the two were left well alone.

Niou was sore but didn't bother Yagyuu again. They sat at opposite ends of the table and proceeded to ignore each other.

Sanada had finished his breakfast before anyone else and was now sitting in a corner giggling quietly to himself. Renji made a note to himself to slap his vice captain out of it later.

Jackal had saved what he could from the dessert section for Marui and was now creeping up on Jirou, who had fallen asleep in a corner.

Kabaji was waiting on Atobe again whilst the Hyoutei captain chatted amiably with Yukimura. Neither captain seemed to be overly bothered by the disorganized chaos that was both of their teams.

Hiyoshi was crouched behind his chair, spying on Jackal. He still hadn't forgiven the Rikkai third year for playing him for a fool yesterday. His hands tightened on the 'Jackal doll' that he had managed to make last night.

"Hehehehehe…" His sinister giggle ran out.

Everyone in the room stilled before staring at him like he had lost his mind.

"Hohohohoho…" Trying to muffle the sounds with his shirt wasn't working for Hiyoshi.

Everyone in the room turned away resolutely and continued to mind their own business.

"Hahahahaha…" He gave up trying to mute his laughter and throttled the doll he was holding.

Jackal looked over at him once before turning his attention back to the slumbering Jirou once more. The bald defense specialist reached out a hand and prodded Jirou. When he got no response, he continued to do it.

Jirou snored and turned around, slapping Jackal on the cheek in the process.

Hiyoshi giggled again and began stabbing the 'Jackal doll', "Hehehehehe…"

The Rikkai third year didn't look too amused. His placid expression cracked and grabbing a pillow with one hand whilst holding down Jirou with the other, he proceeded to try to suffocate the narcoleptic, Hyoutei player.

Try being the key word.

Instead of choking, the still sleeping Jirou merely slapped one hand firmly onto the wrist holding the pillow and used his other to grab it.

Jackal, losing his momentum, fell forward right onto the floor. Jirou rolled and the Rikkai boy found himself as a makeshift bed.

Hiyoshi snickered and swung the doll around his head, "Serves you right… Oh great evil."

Brushing his hands off, the second year crouched by his still sleeping senpai and tucked the bald doll under his senpai's arm.

"Ge…ko…ku…jou…" Hiyoshi hummed as he wandered back to the buffet table.

* * *

Akaya wasn't sure what he wanted to feel at this particular moment in time. He eyed Marui who was still in his full frilly, pink laced glory, standing across the net from him. 

Yukimura, whether from sheer boredom or sheer evilness, had decided Marui didn't need a change of outfit to participate in training. No matter how much the bubble blowing tensai complained or whined, the Rikkai captain hadn't been moved.

However, their captain had by some miracle, managed to partner Marui up with Akaya instead of Jirou again. This also gave the Rikkai second year a well need reprise from interference from any of the Hyoutei players.

Akaya could swear that someone was staring at him. He sent a glance over his shoulder; Yagyuu and Shishido were playing against Niou and Ohtori whilst Mukahi and Oshitari had a nice volley going.

That left…

Akaya turned and glared at Hiyoshi. The Hyoutei second year whipped his head around to face his own partner, Yanagi Renji. But not before sending Kirihara a look that told him that the reckoning was coming.

Akaya gulped. Maybe it was better not to know. He'd only have to avoid the other boy for the next five or so days. Why was time going so slowly?

"Nuuuu!" A loud yell sounded.

Everyone turned to look. Kabaji and Jirou stood together across the net from a fuming Jackal and a blank looking Sanada. The game count stood at three games all. Jirou danced a little dance as Kabaji's shot knocked the racquet clean out of Jackal's hand. Sanada just continued to stand like a statue.

"Are you sure your vice-captain is alright?" Atobe asked Yukimura quite lazily. The two captains were taking it easy again, 'discussing training'.

Yukimura didn't even need to look in Sanada's direction. He merely waved a hand casually, "It's no big problem. Renji will smack him out of it later."

"Ah…"

Jackal had finally given up as the two Hyoutei boys scored another game against him. The Latin defense specialist threw his racquet on his partner before narrowing his eyes and calling for backup, "Yanagi!"

Renji dropped his game with Hiyoshi immediately. The Hyoutei boy glared, not very effectively, but swore revenge anyway.

The two Rikkai players grinned at each other before advancing on the unsuspecting Sanada quietly.

Loud smacks and bangs sounded. Then a scream or two followed. The entire side of the court that Jackal and Sanada had occupied was flying with dust, making it hard to see anything. However, a stray arm or leg could be seen writhing about occasionally.

There was silence on the courts. Atobe rolled his eyes and continued with his conversation with the Rikkai captain.

Yukimura hadn't even looked up at the screams. It was a daily part of life if you went to Rikkai.

Meanwhile, on the opposite end of the courts…

Shishido stormed up to the net where he and Yagyuu were playing a game against Niou and Choutarou.

"NIOU!"

The Trickster looked up from where he carefully brushing the hair out of Choutarou's eyes after a serve, "Hmm?"

Shishido's teeth were on the edge, "Come here…"

The silver haired Rikkai boy sauntered over to the net, "What did you want… Shishido?"

The blue capped boy grabbed Niou by the collar and started shaking him, "KEEP YOUR DIRTY PAWS OFF CHOUTAROU!"

Another scream sounded.

Shishido's head whipped around. That was Choutarou's voice.

His gaze was fast enough to lock onto the rapidly disappearing figure of Yagyuu who had Choutarou tucked neatly under his arm.

"Shishido-san…!" Choutarou's distraught voice could be heard calling in the distance.

"Choutarou…!" Shishido watched, wide eyed, as his doubles partner and erm… 'best friend', was forcibly dragged away into the distance, legs flailing in the midday sun. "Nuoooooh…!"

"Shishido-san…!" The younger boy's cries were still there, ringing the warm noon air. Shishido bowed his head like a tragic hero and vowed to take revenge.

His determined visage was a sight to behold, "I shall revenge you Choutarou! I SHALL AVENGE YOU!"

With that final parting sentence, Shishido climbed to his feet and stomped away.

As he moved off, a clap sounded, then two before the entire tennis courts burst into applause.

Gakuto let loose a wolf-whistle, "Well done Shishido! I think that was your best performance yet!"

Oshitari had that knowing smirk on his face as he clapped politely. The remainder of the Hyoutei crowd was well used to the dramatics of being in the same team as Shishido. They gave the customary applause before settling back into training.

The Rikkai boys, sans Yukimura, were gaping at the scene they had just witnessed.

Akaya's eyes were darting around as he looked for some form of escape. It was then that he noticed that the court next to his was /fully/ empty.

Yagyuu had removed Ohtori and Shishido had chased after the two…

That left….

The Rikkai second year looked from left to right, "Hey… Where's Niou-senpai?"

* * *

Niou, at this precise moment, sniffled a little as his nose itched unbearably. He rubbed it irritably and growled, "That brat… He's talking about me behind my back again." Niou had used the chaos that his doubles partner had caused to sneak out of training. Doubtless he was going to get it from Yukimura later, but Niou wasn't really concerned with that. Yet. 

Shrugging his shoulders, the silver-haired Trickster took another bite of the pie he had gotten from the kitchen. He eyed his haul and decided it wasn't a bad day or a bad camp, once you got over the occupants. The food was really excellent. Niou had another pie and three freshly made dumplings sitting on his plate still.

At that moment, Shishido chose to make his grand entrance. Or it would have been if he had merely opened the door. Instead, he shoved it so hard, thinking that it was locked, that it slammed against the wall and swung back to connect solidly with his face.

Niou looked up from his food just in time to see Shishido get the door knob in a sensitive place. Even the Trickster winced. "Ouch…"

Shishido gasped in pain and clutched his pained place. "Owwwwwwwww…!"

The Rikkai boy, after another couple of moments of observing Shishido in agony, decided that his food was more interesting. He turned back to it.

"Niou…" Shishido gasped from his position crouched on the floor, still obviously in some pain.

Niou didn't bother to respond. Maybe if he ignored the blue-capped boy, he'd leave and let him eat in peace.

"Niou!" The Hyoutei boy's voice grew a little stronger.

Again, Niou pretended not to hear.

"NIOU. MASAHARU!" Shishido's voice practically thundered. Pity that his voice cracked and went up about two octaves on the last note.

Interested, Niou turned and grinned, "Why, you know my name! How pleased I am…" He patted his chest, on the area right above his heart. "I can hear my heart all aflutter. Tell me kind sir, what are you?"

Shishido choked and grabbed Niou by the Rikkai boy's lapels. "Your. Partner. Has. Choutarou."

Shrugging off the hold, Niou took a bite of a dumpling. "I'm single, so I have no idea what type of partner you're talking about." He put the food item back down onto the plate and gave Shishido a lecherous look, "Unless you're offering to be my 'partner'?"

Niou smirked at the horrified expression on Shishido's face. "… WHAT?!..."

Recovering, Shishido stood up tall as he recalled his purpose. "Yagyuu Hiroshi. Your doubles partner."

Niou gave him a politely puzzled look, "Yes. Of course I know him. He's my 'partner'."

Breathing in and out, forcing it to be in a rhythm, Shishido attempted to ignore that and continue, "He kidnapped /my/ double's partner."

Niou continued to give him that puzzled look, "And?"

"I want him back!"

A sudden look of 'realisation' dawned on Niou's face. Really, if one didn't know him really well, one would actually think he was innocent. "Ah. Well…" He pushed back his chair and gestured for the Hyoutei boy to follow him.

"I know exactly what to do to help you get him back."

At these words, the blue-capped boy perked up. "Really?"

Niou nodded and led the way out of the room.

Shishido never saw that sinister smirk that the Trickster wore.

It was… frightening.

* * *

Choutarou sat a little awkwardly next to the Gentleman. He wasn't entirely sure what to make of Yagyuu Hiroshi, but one thing was certain, he was just as sane as the remainder of his team. Which wasn't very. 

The dining room was filled with soft chatter as almost all of the players from both teams had their lunch before a two hour break and then another two hours worth of training. After that session, they were free to pursue their own interests until dinner. Of course, after their dinner, everyone was free until 'curfew'.

Yagyuu handed him an apple and the second year Hyoutei boy took it with a murmured 'thanks'. After that horrific 'kidnapping' he had found out that Yagyuu wanted nothing more than to chat about the weather, cute kittens, knitting and the basics of doubles playing.

He had achieved nothing damaging from the session except to learn that Yagyuu was utterly brilliant at making small talk. However, Choutarou decided that Yagyuu was a worthy opponent and probably will be a good friend in the long run. Probably being the key word.

Choutarou brushed a hand casually through his hair, distracted. He hadn't seen Shishido since Yagyuu had 'removed' him from practice this afternoon. Listening to the talk being passed around the lunch table, the silver-haired Hyoutei player decided that Shishido-san was in mourning over him.

Being the kind person he was, Choutarou decided to go and cheer Shishido up. After all, they were 'best friends' weren't they? Just as he nodded to himself and proceeded to push his chair back, the dining room door swung open.

Silence fell amongst the players when they turned and saw nothing in the doorway. Marui gulped nervously and Akaya could be seen sending Oshitari furtive glances as if the Hyoutei tensai was somehow responsible for this.

However, everyone's wonderings were stopped with the /thing/ that jumped into their view.

Everyone, including both captains, blinked twice and a couple of players choked. Akaya whimpered and Sanada seriously considered climbing under the table. However all of the Hyoutei boys, apart from Atobe, sighed and gave Choutarou a glance as if this was all the second year's fault.

Atobe merely turned to Yukimura, "Don't worry… As long as you block your ears and close your eyes, our pact still holds."

The Rikkai captain sent the object in the doorway another slightly suspicious look before nodding and doing just that.

Choutarou was probably the only one in the room who actually looked happy, "Shishido-san!"

Indeed, it was none other than Shishido who stood at the entrance. That was nothing strange in itself. It was what he was wearing that had Yagyuu coughing up his tea through his nose and Marui considering taking out a contract on the Hyoutei player.

A tight vinyl, otherwise known as plastic, leotard covered Shishido from shoulders to knees before giving way to a pair of shiny boots. A large 'S' dominated his chest. All of this was in bright yellow, orange and green. Highlighter version. And the mask shouldn't be forgotten. It was feathery. That is all that is going to be said on the subject.

His hat seemed somewhat normal amongst the horrid ensemble.

"Gekokujou." Hiyoshi muttered and decided that Akaya was going to tell everything tonight whether he liked it or not. Shishido-senpai was just getting too scary.

Niou couldn't be seen, but his voice was heard yelling something. Most of the boys present thought it sounded quite similar to, "I CHOOSE YOU SHISHIDO!"

Shishido stood trying to look impressive.

"YOU!" An imperious finger pointed at Yagyuu. The effect was somewhat ruined by the squeaking due to the movement.

Yagyuu looked up calmly before resuming his current activity of snorting tea up from his nose.

Shishido's blue eyes narrowed impressively, "YAGYUU HIROSHI! I command thee, by the name of SHISHIDO…" Here he gestured marvelously at the shiny green 'S' on his chest.

"…to give back my doubles partner!"

Shishido's eyes wandered to the seat next to the Gentleman and saw a smiling Choutarou waving at him cheerfully.

"Choutarou!" Shishido exclaimed. His chest puffed out and he placed his hands on his hips, "Have no fear! SHISHIDO IS HERE!"

Choutarou gave Shishido a warm smile and Marui swore he could see stars spinning around in the Hyoutei boy's eyes. "Shishido-san! You came to rescue me!"

Shishido trailed off as he realized that he must look like quite a fool at the moment. Choutarou was neither bound nor gagged. "Erm…"

Niou popped in behind him and tapped on his shoulder.

With a barely suppressed snarl, Shishido spun around, "What?!"

He didn't even get the entire word out before a flash blinded him. When the Hyoutei boy was able to see again, Niou had skipped back a couple of places waving a camera in front of him.

"Tricked you!"

The camera flashed again, capturing the dumbfounded look on poor Shishido's face. Then Niou proceeded to laugh loudly and fairly obnoxiously.

Shishido could seriously feel the eyes boring into his back. Without another word, he swept out majestically. Except that he almost tripped over his cape and went crashing to the floor.

Choutarou jumped up and ran after him. "Shishido-san! You look great… You really should wear it more often…!"

More tea went up the wrong pipe as Yagyuu choked for the second time. Once he was able to look up, his glasses glinted with annoyance. Niou grinned. //Looks like Hiroshi has a new target. //

Choutarou's voice grew smaller as he moved further and further away.

Marui shuddered and shared a look with Jackal, "If he /ever/ attempts to put that thing back on I swear I'll shoot him."

Jackal smiled genially and patted the pink-haired boy's hair. "Sure. Just don't forget that buchou has your rifle though."

"Damn…"

Renji scribbled furiously, his pen dancing over the page. "Ii data…"

Niou merely continued smirking as he swung the camera around lazily, "Now… Who wants to resuscitate fukubuchou?"

* * *

-grin- I think this is my longest chapter yet. XD Think of it as a gift to all my readers/encouragers/reviewers. You all deserve big glomps. 

You all know what I ask for by now. -big eyes- Reviews... Please?


End file.
